MHA Spring Courses

MHA1003 Health System Operations and Program Management

Credits: 3 Offered: Spring

This course is an introduction to understanding; the competencies, roles and responsibilities of public health and health managers; health organizations, which are complex and changing in response to community needs and to changing environments; the skills required to establish and maintain organizational culture and organizational change; and talent and team management. Through readings, class discussion and the analysis of case studies, students, will have an opportunity to explore and identify key management and leadership challenges impacting public health and health; formulate and evaluate alternative solutions to problems; learn verbally and in writing to present analysis of managerial plans and proposals. The course will emphasize skill development in the management of mission, strategy, operations and the business aspects of health organizations.

MHA1004 Organizational Behavior & Human Resources

Credits: 3 Offered: Spring

Human resource management in health organizations and the relationship between HR, organizational strategy, and organizational behavior is the focus of this course. We will analyze human work behavior at the individual, interpersonal, team and organizational levels. Included are topics such as motivation, communication, group and team dynamics, leadership, decision-making, job and organization design, conflict management, organizational culture and identity, and organizational change. We will apply organizational behavior theory and explore the factors that affect behavior, performance, and job satisfaction of people working in organizations. The objectives of the course will be to understand the characteristics and processes of work organizations; to successfully develop management skills; to apply the skills of management and impact organizational behavior and performance. Cross listed with MPH 0111

MHA1005 Health Economics

Credits: 3 Offered: Spring

The intent of this course is to train future public health practitioners on the economic and political questions that emerge in the process of developing health systems. The various sessions during the course will review core economic principles applied to the role of governments, the private sector and the competitive marketplace. The course will provide an overview of traditional microeconomic theory and practice as applied to demand, supply, competition, monopoly, and social welfare. It will drill down on topics such as role of governments, private sector, market competition, government failure and market failure. Special sessions will be devoted to topics on clinical services, non-clinical services, the health care workforce, health financing, the health related manufacturing sectors (pharmaceuticals, medical technology and information technology) and leadership/health management. Special attention will be paid to the implication of the Covid 19 crisis for the economic function and performance of health care system and its major components. The major course output will be guided, semester-long exercises in analyzing and developing strategic development plans from a public health professional's perspective to guide political and economic decision making. The focus on health systems is a concrete means to understand the more general competencies involved in the application of economic analysis, which include political, financial, technical and organizational skills. The course will link to the ongoing health care reform debate to help participants understand the underlying economic issues raised by the reforms. Cross listed with MPH 0105

MHA1006 Health Care Informatics and Technology

Credits: 3 Offered: Spring

This course covers the modern application of information technology that is critical to supporting operational knowledge in managing health care delivery organizations. Health care decision-makers have to meet head-on the dynamic challenges of health care delivery quality, cost, access, and regulatory control. This course integrates healthcare information systems as integral to quality initiatives including measurement of systems inputs, processes, and outputs with special emphasis on systems outcomes research and organizational accountability to various stakeholders, not the least of which is government regulators.

MHA1008 Health Care Policy

Credits: 3 Offered: Spring

The COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world since December 2019 has illustrated in stark terms how public health policy permeates our daily lives and its critical importance to the functioning of society. But the pandemic has also exposed underlying tensions and value disagreements that pervade public health policymaking and make it a political rather than purely technical undertaking. This course examines major political, institutional and managerial factors that shape public health decision-making and the effect that policy decisions have on population health.

MHA2005 Population Health and Managed Care

Credits: 3 Offered: Spring

This course will enable you to probe the Public Health and Community/Population-Based Approach and address the core principles and functions of public health, including how this approach differs from acute care medicine, and how public functions are institutionalized in the US health care system. The course will focus upon arguments and evidence that the health status of populations is shaped not by medical care and health care policy but rather by basic social conditions that often correlate closely with class, race, and ethnicity. Interrelated topics include: status and stress; social isolation and community engagement; complex socio-clinical conditions (mental illness, HIV, substance abuse, homelessness); promotion of healthy behaviors; and the role of the ACA in advancing public health. Cross listed with MPH 0120

MHA5005 Foundations of Managerial Skills: Change Management

Credits: 0.5 Offered: Spring

This semester skills building workshops will focus on Effective Teams. These intensive short training courses will immerse students in additional skill set areas necessary to become highly functioning and effective managers. The 5 areas of training focus will complement the substantive curriculum of the program and focus on: project management methods, Excel and SAS essentials for managers, giving professional presentations, effective time management, and creating and managing functional teams (collaboration). Students will receive expert instruction on best methods/practices related to health care delivery, practice those methods in active small group settings, and share lessons learned in each of these areas. Students will be expected to actively participate in case studies and complete a project for each short course/module.

MHA5006 Foundations of Managerial Skills: Improving Interpersonal Communication

Credits: 0.5 Offered: Spring

Effectiveness

This semester skills building workshops will focus on Effective Teams. These intensive short training courses will immerse students in additional skill set areas necessary to become highly functioning and effective managers. The 5 areas of training focus will complement the substantive curriculum of the program and focus on: project management methods, Excel and SAS essentials for managers, giving professional presentations, effective time management, and creating and managing functional teams (collaboration). Students will receive expert instruction on best methods/practices related to health care delivery, practice those methods in active small group settings, and share lessons learned in each of these areas. Students will be expected to actively participate in case studies and complete a project for each short course/module.

MHA5011 Conflict management

Credits: 0.5 Offered: Spring

This intensive training focuses on the processes and methods for managing professional team-based conflict toward improving team performance, maintaining personal well-being, and creating productive outcomes/results. Participants in this session will actively work through illustrations and cases in small group exercises to practice the skills and develop more effective methods.

MHA5012 Basic Statistics

Credits: 0.5 Offered: Spring

This course will teach you the core building blocks of statistical analysis for health care informatics - types of variables, common distributions, and basic hypothesis testing are key. It will enable you to take a data set describe its keys features and run some vital basic analyses. The course is a pre-requisite to the MHA 2001 course on Quantitative and Analytical Methods for Decision-Making.

MHA5017 Statistics and Excel for Administrators

Credits: 1 Offered: Spring

This course combines essential statistical analysis techniques with intermediate-level Excel skills tailored for health care administration. It covers the foundational elements of statistics, including variable types, common distributions, and basic hypothesis testing, enabling you to analyze and describe key features of data sets. Additionally, the course delves into vital Excel functions for health care administrators, such as data consolidation and cleanup, payroll scheduling, revenue and expense analysis, quality improvement initiatives, dashboard creation, and inventory management. A solid working knowledge of basic Excel functions is required; if you need to enhance your Excel skills, contact the program director to explore options. MHA 5017 serves as a prerequisite for MHA 2001: Quantitative and Analytical Methods for Decision-Making

MHA8001 Administrative Internship

Credits: 1-3 Offered: Spring

The MHA administrative internship consists of collaboration between the student, a site supervisor/preceptor, faculty advisor and Program Director. The internship provides students the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of lessons learned in coursework and apply to an administrative fieldwork setting relevant to a student’s area of interest in health care delivery management. Not open to first trimester (new) students. Registration requires prior approval from the program director.