MHA 6551 - The Environment of Healthcare I: Management and Administration

First in a two-course sequence, this course is intended to be the capstone to the MHA degree. The purpose of this course is to give students exposure to healthcare specific application of tools and skills learned in the first year (especially MBA core courses) and to discuss topics of current concern to healthcare administrators. It is intended to both add to students? fund of knowledge about healthcare administration and to engage students in critical thinking about issues facing healthcare administrators. An important objective of this course is to help students reinforce and gain further competence in the areas of leadership, relationship management, communications, and to explore more deeply ethical bases for decision-making. These competencies will be engaged through interactive in-class discussion, analyses of cases, review of current literature, interaction with guest speakers and preparation and presentation of an in-depth end-of-semester paper based on research and personal reflection. The historical development of the hospital industry and the nature and unique role of various types of hospitals are key topics in the first semester. The course is team-taught and practicing healthcare administrators are included as visiting faculty.