Health Care Administration Courses
HC 900 Health Care Systems
Historical development of the health care system and recent trends in organization, administration and legislation
3 credits
HC 901 Management and Organizational Behavior for Health Care Professionals
Management and organizational theory applied to the health care organization. Motivation and leadership, work group dynamics, communications and negotiations. Organizational, design, change and motivation.
3 credits
HC 902 Statistical Methods and Inference for Health Care Professionals
Prerequisite: HC 900, HC 901
Frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and variability, hypothesis testing, probability, correlation, regression, analysis of variance applied to typical problems encountered in a health care setting.
3 credits
HC 903 Accounting and Budgeting for Health Care Professionals
Prerequisite: HC 900, HC 901
The accounting cycle, cost analysis, cost-volume relationships, typical budgeting systems, responsibility accounting and variance analysis, cash-budgeting systems, responsibility accounting and variance analysis, cash-flow planning and the evaluation of capital projects, interpretation of financial statements.
3 credits
HC 904 Financial Management in the Health Care Organization
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 901, HC 903
The role of finance in strategic planning for the health care organization, theory of value with special considerations for nonprofits, capital budgeting and planning, working capital and liquidity management with emphasis on reimbursement structures, pricing and other problems unique to the health-care organization.
3 credits
HC/NM 905 Marketing the Health Care Organization
Prerequisites: HGC 900, HC 901
Application of marketing tools and concepts to health care organizations. Market research and project development, pricing, publicity, and delivery systems.
3 credits
HC 906 Health Care Management Information Systems
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 902
Analysis of information needs and flows in the health care organization. Design and implementation of information systems to support efficient operations as well as managerial planning, control, and decision making.
3 credits
HC 907 Operations and Quality Management in the Health Care Organization
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 902
Analysis of operations in the health care organization from the perspective of continuously improving efficiency and quality. Data based decision making, quantitative models and several approaches to quality management (TQM. CQI) are examined.
3 credits
HC/NM 908 Legal, Regulatory and Ethical Issues in Health Care
Prerequisite: HC 900
An overview of the legal and regulatory framework governing health care from both the manager and the client’s point of view. Legal rights and duties of patients and health-care providers, hospital liability, hospital-physician relationships, patients’ rights, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, negligence and malpractice.
3 credits
Electives: 6 credit hours, choose 2 of the following (Please note: Students may choose other
non-health care elective courses with the prior approval of the coordinator.)
HC 926 Human Resources Management in the Health Care Organization
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 901
Topics discussed include employee relations, employee benefits, employment discrimination, affirmative action, training and career development, assessment, liability and risk management, unions, collective bargaining and contract administration, recruitment, turnover and layoffs, diversity issues, compensation and employee benefit plans.
3 credits
HC 936 Economics of Health Care
Prerequisites: HC 900
Study of the economics of the health care industry in the United States; pricing of health care, alternative delivery systems, human resources availability, third party payments, the role of government in planning, regulating and financing health care.
3 credits
HC 946 Epidemiology
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 902
Classic epidemics, evaluation of epidemiological principles and techniques of investigation and epidemiological analysis of selected diseases.
3 credits
HC 956 Politics and Policies in Health Care
Prerequisite: HC 900
Health care regulation and cost control by government, state vs. private regulatory systems, the nature of political power and its influence on the delivery of health services through for profit, and both public and private nonprofit agencies.
3 credits
HC 976 Seminar: Current Issues in Health Care
Prerequisites: Completion of all required Core courses or permission of the coordinator
A rotating series of seminars involving topics of current interest or in which a number of students have expressed interest. These might include Managed Care, Management of Gerontological Problems, Group Practice Management, Long-Term Care Organizations, and the like. These seminars will normally draw on the rich resources of the Worcester area for guest and visiting lecturers.
3 credits
Capstone: 3-credit hours, choose 1 of the following
HC 986 Internship in Health Care
Prerequisites: Completion of all required Core courses or permission of the coordinator
The internship in health care administration consists of at least 135 hours (3 hours of academic credit) of supervised managerial work in an approved health care setting. The internship is required of students who do not have significant employment experience in the field.
3 credits
HC 996 Health Care Action/Research Project
Prerequisites: Completion of all required Core courses
Students design and implement an Action Research paper. Students will be encouraged and
expected to produce publishable quality research papers. Designed to provide students with the
writing, analytic, and research tools required by professional public, healthcare, and not-for-profit
managers. Emphasis given to the methods of problem identification; developing a research strategy
and formal research proposal; identification of secondary sources essential to public policy and
management research; review of existing literature and documents; overview of social science
research methods; and, a special emphasis on improving the student’s ability to write concisely,
knowledgeably, and in a persuasive style.
3 credits