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Health Systems Management

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HSMG Courses

HSMG 604 COMPARATIVE HEALTH SYSTEMS (3)
An overview of the determinants of health systems and the components of the system in developed and developing countries of the world. The course will examine in-depth the health systems of a number of selected countries. For comparative analysis, different health systems of the world will be categorized into four groups. Both intra-group and inter-group differences in health care costs, delivery, and organization of health care and health status of the population will be examined. Recent proposals for health-sector reform will also be analyzed and evaluated.

HSMG 605 HEALTH SYSTEMS CONCEPTS (3)
This course introduces the health care delivery system in the United States and provides a framework for subsequent courses in the HSM curriculum. The course is designed to acquaint students with the various components of health care system across the continuum of care, the internal and external forces affecting the health care environment, factors influencing the use of health care services, and the unique characteristics that set health care apart from other service industries. The course will also examine issues related to the leadership and management of organizations in the health care delivery sector.

HSMG 606 MANAGERIAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN HEALTH AND DISEASE (2)
MHA students only.
This course provides a foundation of knowledge about the human body in health and disease, while emphasizing the relevant health systems management aspects.  It gives an overview of important concepts of the biological mechanisms of disease at the cellular, individual, and societal levels.  At the cellular level, the course summarizes cullelar function, immunology, and vaccination.  At the individual and societal levels, the course addresses the most important causes of death, providing background on pathophysiology, clinical aspects, disease occurrence, risk factors, and methods of prevention.  In addition, this course initiates health systems management sudents into an understanding of the complexities of human health and disease phenomena as they relate to the management of health systems.  Emphasis is placed on the health care manager's need to understand the basic aspect of the health and disease leading to effective management of the clinical enterprise.  The course is designed for MHA students with a limited background in the biological sciences and who have not had introductory level courses in human health and disease.

HSMG 608 CAREER PLANNING (0)
Second-year MHA students only.
Students will learn how to effectively seek post-graduate fellowships or full-time employment. Topics covered include developing a career statement, job search strategies, networking, preparing resumes and cover letters, obtaining letters of recommendation, conducting organizational research, interviewing skills, and making the transition from student to professional.

HSMG 610 HOSPITAL ORGANIZATION (2)
A study of the diversity and complexity of the daily routine of a hospital administrator, clarifying roles of various constituencies in hospital organizations. Students learn to address multiple situations simultaneously. They also learn to identify management strengths and weaknesses and to establish their own management style.

HSMG 612 CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT IN LONG-TERM CARE (2)
A study of contemporary topics in long-term care management in the United States. After surveying the evolution, external environment, and future of long-term care, the class will study specific management problems, concepts, and methods of special importance to this setting. Topics include facility design, fiscal management, innovative approaches to productivity improvement and cost containment, personnel and labor relations, quality assessment and assurance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and administrative audits.

HSMG 614 LEADERSHIP FOR CLINICAL IMPROVEMENT (3)
This course is open to all students who are seeking future opportunities in executive, managerial, public health, or other health care leadership roles. The course offers students the knowledge, skills, and personal mastery tools that are a prerequisite to assuming leadership positions in the delivery of health services that improve the health status of the individuals and populations. Building on the perspective of clinical education and practice, the student begins his or her leadership journey, integrating and implementing the key structures and processes leading to clinical process improvement and the improvement of health outcomes. By grounding fundamental principles of organizational learning in experimental activities, this course enhances the student's mastery of the core competencies-visioning, dialogue, quality management and measures, systems thinking, personal and team learning, effective health care design, clinical change, and organizational transformation.

HSMG 615 COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: BUSINESS AND POLICY PERSPECTIVES (2)
This course is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills to plan and manage a CAM service. Also, critical health policy issues will be addressed ranging from credentialing to payment systems.

HSMG 616 MEDICAL GROUP PRACTICE MANAGEMENT (2)
A seminar designed to meet the rapidly growing need for professional managers of medical groups. Students learn both how to form and define a group as well as how to manage one that is already established. Topics include promotion, pricing, location, service mix, negotiations with related providers and payers, organizational structure, performance evaluation, and financing.

HSMG 617 QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH CARE (1)
MHA students only.
This course introduces the student of health systems management to areas of continuous process improvement and healthcare quality management.  The course offers the concepts and tools required to examine, evaluate, and implement the key structures and processes of quality improvement programs in health care organizations.  An integrative approach to improvement and organizational learning is taken, combining topics and methods from diverse improvement approaches in the development of an organization-wide commitment to continuous improvement.  Through case analysis, the course emphasizes practical applications that prepare the participants to use the theory and techniques of quality improvement in situations with complex clinical and managerial implications.  Course topics include measurement systems, quality improvement toods, and the design of programs for organizational learning.

HSMG 618 ADMINISTRATION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES (2)
Introduction to the various models of mental health care delivery and their organizational structures, including an overview of the nature of major psychiatric disorders and their impact on the mental health care system. The course offers explanations of the elements of organizational theory as applied to mental health services and leadership, organizational dynamics and their interrelationship in these organizations.

HSMG 619 ETHICAL CONCERNS OF HEALTH CARE MANAGERS (2)
Everyone involved in health care today, to be effective both individually and as a member of health care teams, needs to be well grounded in the ethical issues and dilemmas involved in health care delivery, the effect of these issues on policy making for health care institutions, and the ethical principles and theories available for decision making. Through their study of these subjects, students also develop better understanding of their own bases for making ethical decisions, including identification and sources of presuppositions and biases.

HSMG 620 HEALTHCARE ENTREPRENEURSHIP (2)
This course engages students in the study of entrepreneurship via personal experiences of successful entrepreneurs, case studies, and select readings. Students are introduced to the concept of risk and are invited to examine their attitudes toward risk as they explore opportunity costs associated with careers in healthcare entrepreneurship. Case studies and reading challenge students to synthesize what they have learned in other courses as they create business plans for new ventures in healthcare.

HSMG 621 HEALTH LAW AND REGULATION (3)
Introduction to a wide range of topics in the area of health law and regulation including a number of relevant statutes. Students learn to recognize potential legal problems in various health care settings, identify the issues and rights that are implicated, and propose solutions or plans of action. They also learn to differentiate between legal problems and problems which can more appropriately be solved in other ways. There is an emphasis on formulating analyses clearly, both orally and in writing. Among the subject areas covered in the first two-thirds of the course are licensing, professional liability, confidentiality, informed consent, professional relationships, access issues, and antitrust. The last third of the course covers the legal aspects of a variety of bioethical issues.

HSMG 632 MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATIONS (3)
This course teaches successful coordination of written and spoken communication skills. Several written case studies and oral presentations based on the case studies are required. The oral presentations will be videotaped and critiqued to evaluate student progress. Topics for developing written skills include reader-centered writing, pattern recognition skills, writing myths, and the stages of writing. Topics for developing oral presentation skills include eye contact, gestures, movement, stage fright, and using visual aids. In addition, the class will discuss the three facets of the communication process: words used, tone of voice, and non-verbals. The course will explain the impact of these three facets on the listener and outline the four basic communication styles professionals come into contact with every day. Methods for adjusting an individual speaking style to the style of others will be demonstrated. The concepts of "style-flexing" and "opening in parallel" will be discussed as well as how to avoid conflict with an opposing style.

HSMG 633 HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATION (3)
Prerequisites: HSMG 674 or HSMG 771.
The purpose of much of the course is to improve students' abilities to analyze and conduct both external and internal negotiations. Building from simple to complex negotiations, the course will develop an analytical framework that helps one to understand a negotiating situation, the tactics that are available given the situation and the array of moves one can employ to improve one's prospects by changing the position. Various negotiations both inside and outside the hospital and health care delivery area will be addressed. Outside negotiations include: establishment of financial terms and contracts; working through legal or regulatory mazes; and changing the form of the organization. Inside negotiation includes: strategy formulation and management of relationships among superiors, subordinates and peers. Course topics will be presented through lecturers, class discussion, negotiating exercises, and computer simulation.

HSMG 637 HUMAN RESOURCES/ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR (4)
Prerequisites: HSMG 605, BIOS 603, HSMG 691, HSMG 797; concurrent enrollment in HSMG 792; and experience in health care organizations.
A course combining both Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, this offering provides theoretical and practical content for managers of health care organizations. By integrating the content areas of both subjects, this course allows students to learn organizational theory and then to apply it to human resource issues. Broad topical areas include psychological and cultural processes affecting recruitment and selection, factors influencing training and development, the scientific method as applied to health care organizations, theories and practices influencing employee performance, effective management theory and practice, engaging and involving employees in organizational processes, employee well-being, and managing change.

HSMG 645 HEALTH ECONOMICS (3)
A study of principles, concepts, and methods of economic analysis especially applicable to the health sector of the U.S. economy. Applications include special characteristics of health care as a commodity and of the patient as a consumer; health insurance; determinants of cost and utilization; effects on performance of different market structures, regulatory policies, and payment mechanisms.

HSMG 650 INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH CARE ACCOUNTING (3)
An overview of the basic accounting and financial processes needed to manage departments and programs within a health care organization. Emphasis is on understanding financial statements, analyzing organizations, and utilizing external information systems. Students strengthen their ability to interact with fiscal and executive managers in order to ensure the financial health of their organizations. Similarly, students develop the ability to understand, apply, and criticize principles and techniques in real world situations. Course is designed for health care professionals who have no background in accounting and finance.

HSMG 651 ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH (2)
This course is an overview of basic accounting and financial processes to manage departments and programs within an organization. Fundamental concepts and principles of managerial finance will be emphasized. We will examine how to understand financial statements and their relationships; analyze financial statements and their "vital signs" through ratio analysis; review techniques of economic valuation and decision-making for investment in varying projects and required rates of return, and budgetary considerations. The course is designed for those with no experience in accounting or finance. The course requires each student to have an e-mail address and to be proficient at navigating the world wide web.

HSMG 675 INFORMATION SYSTEMS (2)
Information technology and information systems are increasingly important to the management of health care organizations. This course is designed to introduce the health administration student to the rapidly evolving discipline of health informatics in the complex and diverse world of healthcare. The course will review the history, current applications, and the potential future of information, information management and information technology, including: data acquisition, storage and processing; information systems (clinical and administrative); standards; security; decision support; and an understanding of medical/health informatics methods and principles.

HSMG 680 FACILITY PLANNING AND EVALUATION (3)
An introduction to the field of facility planning and evaluation is presented. An interdisciplinary perspective is presented to establish a context for the specific theories, goals, strategies, and skills needed to successfully develop criteria upon which facilities are planned, designed, and modified across their life. Topics covered include assessment of user and organizational needs, various methods for involving clients and other user constituencies in the development of performance criteria, determination of square foot requirements and narratives, interior and exterior amenities, site and master planning issues, design guidelines, trade off analyses, life cycle cost analyses, post-occupancy evaluation (POE), the need for facility based strategic planning for buildings, and the management of the built environment as a resource. Lectures, discussions, case studies, field trips, and independent projects form the basis of the course.

HSMG 684 HEALTH CARE MARKETING (2)
An introduction to marketing concepts, principles, and methods as they are being translated for health care. Lectures provide a broad managerial overview of the basic elements of the marketing process. Students learn to assess marketing opportunities and how marketing programs are planned and implemented. Through guest lecturers, students are exposed to a variety of approaches that are evolving in the industry.

HSMG 688 ARCHITECTURE AND HUMAN HEALTH (3)
Introduces the relationships between architectural design and human well-being and health. The intent is to bridge across boundaries to foster an interdisciplinary understanding of key responsibilities, concerns, and priorities of those who plan and design the built environment, and for decision makers in health care organizations charged with planning, implementing and maintaining health care facilities on a daily basis as well as in terms of long-range strategic planning. Present and anticipated trends in health care facility design and theory are presented against a backdrop of the origins and evolution of healing environments in western civilization. Emphasis is placed on theories of human functioning, well-being, adaptation, stress, health status, environmental perception and cognition, meaning and value systems, territoriality, and personal space needs of persons in the built environment. Case studies and past research in various projects are cited. The concepts and the historical analysis are supplemented with field trips. Concludes with strategies for user-based planning and design.

HSMG 691 ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNSHIP I (0)
MHA or MBA/MPH or JD/MHA students only.
This course combines didactic and field sessions to introduce students to the operational management of public and private components of the health care delivery system. Students will be exposed to the planning, delivery, and financing of health services in organizations including acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, multi-institutional systems, not-for-profit entitites and others.

HSMG 692 ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNSHIP II (1)
MHA or MBA/MPH or JD/MHA students only. Prerequisite: HSMG 691.
The Administrative Residency II is the fall MHA field experience designed to further expose the future health care manager to the operations environment.  The course is a continuation of the administrative practicum in a health care organization.  Following the summer residency course, this course consists of 14 weeks of part-time work during the fall semester.  The student will complete longer-term projects begun during the summer, or begin to assume new responsibilities.

HSMG 698 HEALTH SYSTEM OF CHINA: AN APPLIED PERSPECTIVE (2)

HSMG 715 MEDICAL MANAGEMENT (3)
Prerequisite: HSMG 605
This course is designed to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to evaluate, manage, and improve clinical care processes in healthcare delivery organizations.  Participants will analyze the differing perspectives, goals, incentives, and informational needs of integrated delivery systems (IDSs), managed care organizations (MCOs), physician group practices, purchases (e.g. employers and health insurance companies), and consumers.

Working from this knowledge base, participants will be prepared to design clinical improvement systems that can be used to influence the cost and quality of care in their organizations.  The course also addresses specific clinical and financial measures of performance and outcomes.  Students will study the specific application of medical management tools in quality improvement, utilization management, outcomes management, clinical pathway development, physician practice development, and disease-focused systems of care.

HSMG 717 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING FOR HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS (3)
Prerequisites: HSMG 605, HSMG 650 or ACCT 610, HSMG 635 or 637 or OBHR 635, HSMG 684 or MKTG 686, HSMG 758 or FINC 654
This course introduces the concepts of strategic thinking, strategic planning and strategic management as they are applied in nonprofit and for-profit health care related organizations. Participants develop the capacity to think as strategic leaders through building skills in external environmental analysis, internal organizational analysis, strategy formulation, evaluation and implementation. This course serves as the capstone for the MHA curriculum, integrating students' knowledge of management, marketing, organizational behavior, human resources, finance, accounting, health policy, and economics. Integration is accomplished through the use of cases and the performance of a strategic assessment and plan for a health care related organization.

HSMG 718 CASE STUDIES IN HEALTH SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT (2)
Prerequisites: HSMG 635, HSMG 650.
This course is designed as a Capstone experience that enables the student completing the master of public health degree to apply the skills of management to specific situations and scenarios in both the public and the private sectors of the health care delivery system. Guest speakers are used to provide the students varying insights into the current state of health systems management in both sectors. The case studies and guest speakers are intended to serve as integrative experiences for HSM students who are about to enter the professional job market.

HSMG 745 ECONOMICS OF HEALTH CARE (3)
Prerequisite: HSMG 645, ECON 641, or a course in intermediate micro-economics.
Topics vary from year to year. Examples include determinants of demand and utilization with emphasis on the role of the physician, methods of rationing scarce lifesaving resources, economics of the not-for-profit firm, markets for health insurance and professional services, effects of competition on efficiency and access.

HSMG 754 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING (3)
Prerequisite: HSMG 650 
This course covers the theory and applications of internal accounting.  Focus is placed on the analysis of costs behavior, and the use of that knowledge to plan and control for costs.

HSMG 755 HEALTH CARE PAYMENT -- MECHANISMS AND POLICY (3)
Prerequisites: ACCT 605 or HSMG 650 or equivalent.
This course is designed to provide careful descriptions of how providers of health care services have been, are, and will be paid for the services by a variety of payers, with special emphasis on public-sector programs and managed care organizations. Knowledge of the concepts of finance and of accounting will be used to analyze issues of both public and private payment policy. Topics include the macro-economic environment within which alternative payment systems have evolved and continue to evolve; payment mechanisms for institutionally based care, both acute and subacute, and for ambulatory care over a range of settings; regulatory processes determining payment for services in entitlement programs; the policy objectives furthered or impeded by public-sector and private-sector payment mechanisms; and analysis of provider responses to payment systems incentives.

HSMG 759 CASES IN ACCOUNTING & FINANCE (1)
Prerequisites: ACCT 605 or HSMG 650, HSMG 754 & HSMG 758.
This course is intended for students in the master of health administration program. It assumes successful completion of a financial accounting, management accounting, and financial management courses as prerequisites. The course is designed to serve as a culminating fiscal course by providing case studies for analysis and application of financial knowledge and experiences. Students conduct in-depth financial analyses of selected public companies for oral and written presentations. Topics also include subjects on personal financial management as researched and presented by the students.

HSMG 766 HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS (3)
Prerequisites: HSMG 605 and HSMG 645.
This course surveys the public and private financing mechanisms used in the U.S. health care delivery industry from a public policy perspective. In light of current economic and political pressures, the course examines the concepts underlying federal entitlement programs and private-sector health benefit programs, alternative health policy approaches, and federal regulation of prices for and supply of services. The mechanisms by which regulations are promulgated and enforced and their effect on managerial behavior are explored.

HSMG 771 QUANTITATIVE DECISION MODELS (3)
Prerequisite: BIOS 603.
This course encompasses a body of knowledge, a set of quantitative skills, and an orientation towards managerial situations which provide managers greater insight and analytic opportunities for improving the managerial process. Focuses on the systematic planning, direction, and control of the organizational processes that turn resources such as labor, equipment, and materials into services and the quantitative analysis that supports these decisions. In this environment, the processes involve allocation, scheduling, and procedural decisions that result in the effective and efficient utilization of resources for the delivery of health care services.

HSMG 791 ADMINISTRATIVE RESIDENCY I (1)
MHA, MBA/MPH, and JD/MHA students only. Prerequisite: HSMG 691 and HSMG 692.
This is a summer residency course consisting of 14 weeks of full-time work and starts in mid-May immediately following the end of the spring semester. During this summer experience, each student is expected to be intensely involved in the daily operation of the organization and, when appropriate, receive exposure to organizational governance.

HSMG 792 ADMINISTRATIVE RESIDENCY II (1)
MHA, MBA/MPH, and JD/MHA students only. Prerequisite: HSMG 691, HSMG 692, and HSMG 791.
The Administrative Residency II is the fall MHA field experience designed to further expose the future health care manager to the operations environment.  The course is a continuation of the administrative practicum in a health care organization.  Following the summer residency course, this courses consists of 14 weeks of part-time work during the fall semester.  The student will complete longer-term projects begun during the summer, or begin to assume new responsibilities.

HSMG 799 INDEPENDENT STUDY (1-12)
Faculty. Permission of coordinator is required.

HSMG 997 DISSERTATION (0)

HSMG 999 DISSERTATION RESEARCH (2)

EMMM Courses

EMMM 602 MANAGEMENT PORTFOLIO (6)
This course tests the progress of the physician executive's thinking along the continua of individual-to-organizational and clinical-to-managerial perspectives. Evaluation centers on assessment of the breadth and depth of information assimilated in all CME course work focused on management and managerial work experience.

EMMM 611 MEDICINE AND MANAGEMENT (3)
Communicating successfully with patients and staff is a fundamental skill any physician must possess. Productive communication requires coordinating three facets of the communication process: words used, tone of voice, and non-verbals. This course will explain the impact of these three facets on the listener and will outline the four basic communication styles that physicians will come into contact with every day. Methods for adjusting an individual speaking style to the styles of others will be demonstrated. The concepts of "style-flexing" and "opening in parallel" will be discussed, as well as how to avoid conflict with an opposing style. Presentation skills will be developed in small group settings and in formal presentations. Methods for efficient construction of written reports will be examined.

EMMM 613/713 EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (2)
This two-part series is designed to increase the physician executive's understanding of the role and function of the leader in the context of health care organizations. The on-campus segment of the course focuses on the core competencies of leadership for creating a learning organization. Teaching methods include a case analysis and seminar discussions. The distance portion of the course emphasizes skill building and prepares the physician executive for leadership decisions commonly faced by managers in health systems.

EMMM 614/714 MANAGING QUALITY AND OUTCOMES FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (1)
The on-campus portion of this two-part course introduces the physician executive to the concepts of clinical quality and outcomes management. The course emphasizes an integrative approach to problem solving, combining concepts and skills from diverse philosophies to the development of an organization-wide commitment to continuous quality improvement. The distance portion of the course emphasizes practical applications that prepare the physician executive to use the tools and techniques of quality improvement and outcomes management to situations involving complex clinical and managerial implications.

EMMM 617 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT TOOLKIT (3)
This course is designed in two parts to be the culminating experience of the degree program. It offers participants the opportunity to learn and use the concepts of strategic thinking and techniques of strategic management. The course integrates students' knowledge of management, marketing, organizational behavior, human resources, finance, accounting, health policy, and economics. This course also incorporates participants' conceptualization of the health care environment in the United States and its effects on the strategic development of a health care provider organization. Integration is accomplished through the use of cases.

EMMM 632 MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION (2)
This intensive, hands-on course prepares the physician executive to communicate vision, strategy, and decisions effectively to all levels of the health care organization and its various stakeholders. Emphasis is placed on written communication and oral presentation skills.

EMMM 633 IMPROVING PHYSICIAN PERFORMANCE (2)
This course is designed to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and conceptual roadmaps to understanding and enhancing the performance of physicians in a wide array of settings. This course is specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of physicians who are involved in the management of individual and collective physician behavior. This course is grounded in the most current knowledge in the areas of interpersonal communication, behavior management, and conflict management. Finally, this course is designed to not only enhance the knowledge of the students but to modify their own behavior as physician-executives toward improving physician performance.

EMMM 635 ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS (2)
This course provides an opportunity for the physician executive to explore, enhance, and tune personal and managerial effectiveness through the examination of key organizational dynamics issues. These issues include interpersonal competency, interpersonal influence, management of conflict and hostility, building effective teams, communications, performance management, leadership and organizational change, and the management of personal change. The course uses a mixture of readings, cases, and lectures, but heavily employs experiential learning in highly personal settings. All of the course material is presented and explored in ways that foster a personalized interpretation and application. Emphasis is placed on development of applications that are of particularly high personal impact for the executive.

EMMM 638 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR PHYSICIAN EXECUTIVES (2)
This course is designed to equip current and aspiring physician leaders, executives, and managers to formulate and implement strategic human resources programs that seek to enhance quality of care and other indicators of organizational performance through the acquisition, deployment, training, and support of employees, contractors, and the voluntary medical staff.

EMMM 650 ACCOUNTING FOR PHYSICIAN EXECUTIVES (2)
This problem-oriented course in two parts reviews the underlying elements and structure of accounting financial statements and extends various concepts of managerial accounting techniques for introduced in EMMM 658.

EMMM 651 FISCAL FOUNDATIONS (1)
This course examines the principles and concepts of accounting, budgeting, and basic fiscal management. The course focuses on the understanding of an organization's current financial health so that informed decisions can be made for its future.

EMMM 654 BUDGETING FOR PHYSICIANS (2)
Budgeting for Physician Executives I and II is an applied operating budget course. Principles of organizational budgeting are developed and used to examine the difficult planning and control decisions existing for health care providers in a managed care environment. The general objective of this course is to provide the health care decision maker with the organizational and accounting theory, concepts, and tools necessary to make better budgeting decisions. It is also expected that this course will serve to enable the student to utilize the operating budget to guide their organization towards desired economic goals and objectives.

EMMM 655 DYNAMICS OF PAYMENT SYSTEMS (2)
This course surveys the basic characteristics of actual fee-for-service and pre-paid payment mechanisms, examining the inherent economic incentives contained in each. How such incentives influence provider behavior is studied. Fee-for-service/prepayment interactions (mixed payment systems) are also examined, as well as various techniques for re-allocating risk among payers and providers.

EMMM 658 FINANCIAL DECISION-MAKING (2)
This course reviews the basic informational content of financial accounting systems and demonstrates how relevant portions of that information can be extracted and analyzed for making resource allocation decisions. The course emphasizes the fundamental concepts and principles of managerial finance in the context of the U.S. health care industry, examining provider financing and investment decision-making based on principles of economic valuation. Topics include techniques of economic valuation, choice among alternative valuation concepts, required rates of return, the cost of capital, identification of relevant cash flows, and simple resource allocation at the provider level.

EMMM 714 MEDICAL INFORMATICS: USING INFORMATION TO ENHANCE CLINICAL OUTCOMES AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS (1)
This course provides practical guidance on developing information systems to support the effective delivery of health care services. Traditional business applications such as spreadsheets, databases, statistical packages, and Internet and presentation graphics are emphasized. Advanced applications in the areas of decision support, paperless medical records, and quantifying and improving clinical outcomes are demonstrated.

EMMM 758 FINANCIAL STRATEGY AND RISK MANAGEMENT (1)
Prerequisite: EMMM 658.
This two-part course builds on the basic concepts covered in EMMM 658. Topics covered include risk definition, measurement, and management (including a review of the capital asset pricing model); the risk-return dimensions of capital structure; the role of hedging (including the role of derivative-type mechanisms) in the management of financial risk; distributing risk through contractual arrangements; and risk-sharing arrangements in a managed care environment.

EMMM 771 DECISION MODELS AND RISK ASSESSMENT (2)
Prerequisite: EMMM 615.
This course improves the ability of the physician executive to analyze complex and sophisticated decision problems in the health care industry. Participants learn quantitative methods and techniques for allocating scarce resources, personnel, facilities, equipment for materials, and supplies in a complex service environment that requires balancing of service cost, productivity and quality. Progressing from simple to complex problems, the course develops practical analytical techniques for the decision-makes. Topics include: project management, forecasting, waiting lines and queuing analysis, inventory systems, and systems simulation.

ESCD Courses
ESCD 731 SEMINAR IN ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY AND ASSESSMENT (3)
This course will be taught from three perspectives. One is as a history of ideas to organizational theory and structure, where classic texts are considered first and subsequent developments are presented as reactions to these viewpoints. A second is to teach the organizational theories as independent of one another and as being self-contained. This approach focuses on the coherent aspects of the theory and its strengths and weaknesses. Third, one can teach from a particular point of view, derived from empirical work, an integration of theoretical reading, and from intuition. The choice of approach is also influenced by the intended applications of the derived knowledge.

ESCD 741 COST BENEFIT AND COST-EFFECTIVE ANALYSIS (3)
The purpose of this course is to introduce techniques of economic evaluation applied to health interventions and clinical decision making. Topics covered include: cost analysis, effectiveness measures, cost-effectiveness, utility measures and cost-utility analysis, benefits of health interventions, and cost-benefit analysis. The course will discuss a number of case studies in clinical and health economics to illustrate the use of economic evaluation techniques in the health sector.

ESCD 743 DECISION ANALYSIS/ADVANCED UTILITY THEORY (3)
This course improves the ability of health services researchers to analyze complex and sophisticated decision problems and to design models of individual choice behavior, probability, and statistical decision making. Students learn to analyze problems by identifying objectives, consequences, likelihood of those consequences, and preferred outcomes. Progressing from simple to complex, the course develops practical analytical techniques for the decision sciences researcher. Topics include probability theory, Bayesian inference, utility models interaction with experts and group decision modeling, multi-stage decision models, clinical decision making, multi-criteria utility theory, break even analysis, and the role of risk attitudes in decision making.

ESCD 751 SEMINAR IN HEALTH FINANCE (3)
Doctoral students in this course will review current healthcare financial issues appearing in healthcare journals and publications during the past two to three years. Journals reviewed include Journal of Healthcare Management, Health Affair, Journal of Health Care Finance Management, and others.

Issues discussed will include the following areas: general/environmental factors confronting managers in today's health organizations wherever they be in the healthcare spectrum of service delivery; not-for-profit and for-profit organizations and the distinctions, differences, and similarities between the two types of structures; teaching hospitals and financial aspects and challenges of this particular group of health delivery organizations; physicians and their involvement, interactions and status during the changing face of health care delivery and regulations; capital investment concerns including risk, analysis of potential projects, real estate techniques, capital acquisition and other topics; managed care and Medicare issues and the effects of these on the financial aspects of healthcare organizations and their delivery of services.

Students will have an opportunity to review and present selected topics to the class during the semester. Also, during the course, the student will prepare a report on a current health care issue. It shall be suitably documented through use of research protocol and prepared for submission for publication. The professor will work closely with the students in this effort.

ESCD 761 SEMINAR IN HEALTH POLICY ANALYSIS (3)
The primary aim of this course is to present an overview of health policy in American government -- its scope, its dynamics, and its conceptual and practical dilemmas -- to students relatively new to the study of policy. More concretely, the course is designed to acquaint students with major issues involved in formulating, implementing and assessing those patterns of decision (i.e., policy) established by government. Because the study of policy is essentially interdisciplinary, readings for the course have been drawn from several fields including sociology, political science, and economics.

ESCD 771 HEALTH OUTCOMES (3)
This course is designed to help the student understand outcomes research and to provide background in the basic tools used in outcomes studies. Upon completion of this course, the student will be literate in the questions, methods and approaches used in outcomes research.

ESCD 773 BIOSTASTICS: REGRESSION ANALYSIS (3)
This is an intermediate course in biostatistics. It covers one-way and two-way analysis of variance, repeated measures designs, simple and multiple regressions and correlation analyses, analysis of covariance, simple and multiple regression. It will introduce the student to biostatistical methods and the role they play in decision making in public health. The student will be enabled to select and carry out appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The student will be enabled to interpret the results of a statistical analysis.

ESCD 775 ADVANCED STATISTICAL METHODS (3)
Prerequisite: ESCD 773
This is a continuation of a course in applied biostatistics. It covers one-way and two-way analysis of variance, the regression approach to performing analysis of variance, multiple comparison procedures, and power and sample size calculations.

ESCD 777 HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH METHODS (3)
Prerequisites: ESCD 773, ESCD 775, and ESCD 741.
This course develops theoretical knowledge and applied skills in designing and conducting research in health systems. You will utilize and build upon knowledge gained in prerequisite courses as you learn to carry out each step of the research process. In doing so you will study textbooks and articles, present reports to the class in a seminar setting, and complete a number of assignments which, taken together, contribute to the experience of research design and analysis. An important component of the curse is developing an understanding of factors which, unless planned and accounted for, sometimes result in serious flaws in the research project.

ESCD 779 ADVANCED RESEARCH METHODS (3)
Prerequisite: ESCD 777
This course presents a number of empirical methodologies widely used in health services research. Practical econometric techniques will be presented for analyzing cross-sectional, time series and pooled cross-sectional and time series data sets. Topics to be covered are: regression models, linear and non-linear regression, problems with multiple regression models, time series analysis, dummy variables in regression models, dummy dependent variables, structural models and problems associated with defining structural models. The course will use health interview surveys and macro level health expenditure data to illustrate the use of econometric methods in health services research.

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Department of Health Systems Management
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
1440 Canal Street, Suite 1900, New Orleans, La 70112
504.988.5428 phn  504.988.3783
hsm@tulane.edu