Master of Health Care Administration (MHA) | Des Moines University Academic Catalog

MHA 619. Health Care Human Relations Management. (3 Credit Hours)

This course provides an overview of the nature, organization, and function of human resources in health care organizations. Emphasis is placed on applications to real-world problems, rather than viewing human resources as an isolated function.

MHA 621. U.S. Health Care & Public Health Syst. (3 Credit Hours)

This course is a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. health care delivery system including the interface with the public health system from a systems approach. Components studied include: Roles of the health care team and practice settings; trends in health care services financing and reimbursement in public and private systems. Formal, informal, financial, and political relationships between and among these components are discussed. Students analyze potential problems and solutions as well as trends in health services delivery, health care policy, and regulation; and, consideration of differences between the U.S. health care and public health systems as compared and contrasted with these systems in other countries. Students participate on interprofessional teams to explore cultural diversity and social determinants of health.

MHA 625. Health Care Financial Management. (3 Credit Hours)

This course provides a basic understanding of health services financial management with emphasis on the not-for-profit entity. This course begins with elementary accounting concepts and then focus on discounted cash flow analysis, risk, financial statements, capital investments, debt and equity financing, and capital budgeting. The course blends accounting and finance concepts to enhance the health care manager's decision-making skills using accounting and finance theories, principles, concepts and techniques most important to managers in the health care industry.

MHA 626. Organizational Behavior & Leader Theory. (3 Credit Hours)

This course will provide a broad introduction to the theory, structure and function of organizations, and the behavior of working in people in them. The primary purpose of the course will be to equip students with an understanding of organizational theory and related practical techniques for managing effectively in complex health care environments.

MHA 627. Legal and Ethics I. (2 Credit Hours)

Health law and bioethics are broad, dynamic and interrelated fields. This course will address major legal, ethical, and policy aspects of controversies in clinical health care delivery. Students will gain a working knowledge about how law and ethics can be applied to real-world health care issues.

MHA 628. Legal and Ethics II. (2 Credit Hours)

This course provides an overview of legal and ethical issues facing the health care industry. Students will gain a working knowledge about the influence that laws, policies and ethics have on the regulation, structure, and financing of the U.S. health care system.

Prerequisite: # Take MHA*627

MHA 629. Organizational Development I. (3 Credit Hours)

This course will incorporate a survey of systems thinking as it relates to quality improvement organizational theory. It focuses on concepts relevant to health service organizations and systems with emphasis on organizational environment, goals, strategy, structure and processes to understand organization structure and systems behavior. The student will learn and apply key systems thinking tools, such as mental maps, process and structure mapping, systems behavior causal loops, and development of systems maps. The course provides a comprehensive overview of the key factors affecting an organization, such as systems traps and leverage points for change, and exposes the student to theories that suggest effective organizational responses to such influences and changes.

MHA 630. Health Care Financial Management II. (3 Credit Hours)

This course builds on the foundational learning from Health Care Financial Management I. The focus will shift to for-profit entities within the health care sector. The course goes into greater depth on discounted cash flow analysis, risk, financial performance evaluation, capital investments, capital budgeting, debt and equity financing. A key objective of this class is to develop the student's ability to engage in long-term financial forecasting and planning. Students will complete a comprehensive financial forecast as their final project for this field of study.

Prerequisite: MHA 625

MHA 631. Health Information Management. (3 Credit Hours)

This course prepares students practicing in the health care industry to effectively identify, use and manage health information technologies. Specific topics include: an introduction to technologies and information systems supporting health care organizations; technology security; regulatory and compliance issues; system acquisition, implementation and support; health information exchange; alignment of technology initiatives; strategic planning; and assessing value in health information technology.

MHA 634. Population Health Management. (3 Credit Hours)

This course is a demonstrated application of the concepts of population health and the tools of epidemiology to the health care management decision-making process. It requires the student to effectively integrate the public health and healthcare systems to focus on population health improvement while simultaneously minimizing health inequities in an efficient and affordable manner. The students will demonstrate how the practice of population health and epidemiology is used to support complex managerial functions. Key topics included in this course include the following: introduction to Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Triple Aim framework, descriptive/analytic epidemiology, health determinants and their impacts, elements of data-driven approach to population health, population health payment models, and the application of population health management.

MHA 640. Health Analytics. (3 Credit Hours)

This course is an introductory level course that provides foundational skills and knowledge in healthcare data analytics that will prepare students to use existing analytics and reporting technology components to monitor and evaluate day-to-day operations and implement healthcare quality and performance improvement efforts. While the content of this course will overlap with the content of the MHA-MPH 650 (about 1/3 overlap), it is distinct from it in three major ways: (a) it focuses on teaching the health informatic technologies that are used by healthcare administration professionals in leadership positions, (b) it covers topics such as information governance and issues related to data quality evaluations and (c) it gives less emphasis to research data analysis and research reporting formats.

MHA 642. Long-Term Care Internship. (3 Credit Hours)

This course serves as an alternative to MHA 749: Field Based Learning specifically for students interested in obtaining the Nursing Home administrator's license. The hours spent in this internship must adhere to the practicum requirements set forth in the Iowa [or other state's] Administrative Code regarding nursing home administration practicums. Students outside the state of Iowa are expected to learn the requirements for licensure within their state and provide a copy for the course faculty to review. This internship must be at least 400 hours and be guided under the direction of a qualified licensed nursing home administrator. The student must propose the internship experience to the preceptor and course faculty for review and approval. Once approval is provided, the course faculty will request that the student be registered for the course. Students successfully completing the long-term care internship (along with the balance of their M.H.A. degree) should meet the state of Iowa practicum requirements to sit for the examination for licensure as a nursing home administrator. IMPORTANT NOTE: Long-term care licensure in Iowa is regulated by the state. It is the sole responsibility of the student to assure and verify he/she has met the legal requirements for certification. Program faculty will assist with the requirements through the offering of the internship course (i.e., monitoring approved hours, verification of preceptor qualifications, providing an opportunity to reflect on the overall experience, etc.), but final responsibility for meeting all state, national or other licensure requirements rests with the student.

Prerequisite: Students must have 40 credit hours completed and/or in-progress to register.

MHA 643. Healthcare Law and Ethics. (3 Credit Hours)

This course provides an overview of legal and ethical issues in the health care industry. This course will address major legal, ethical, and policy aspects of controversies in clinical health care delivery. Students will gain a working knowledge about how law and ethics can be applied to real-world health care issues. Additionally, students will gain foundational knowledge about how laws, policies, and ethics influence the regulation, structure, and financing of the U.S. health care system.

MHA 644. Health Care Economics and Policy. (3 Credit Hours)

This course is an introduction to the theoretical foundations of health care economics and its application to the health care industry and to the field of health policy. This course presents health care economics as a main source of rapid changes in health care markets and includes studies of consumer and provider behavior, health insurance, market structure, government interventions, and economic evaluation methods. This course will also provide students with an understanding of the process of health policy analysis and its implementation.

MHA 646. Strategic Marketing and Communications. (3 Credit Hours)

This course is designed to build innovative, customer-centered thinking within the future leaders of the health care industry. This is accomplished with an introduction to the role of strategic decision-making through the core principles of marketing (the four P's). Students will also experience basic database management, the conduct of an internal and external environmental analysis, primary and secondary data gathering and interpretation and creation of a marketing plan to meet an unsatisfied market need or build volume for a health care product or service. Finally, the role of corporate communication will be interwoven throughout the course as it supports marketing success.

MHA 648. Organizational Development II. (2 Credit Hours)

This course is about operations management and the strategic implementation of programs, techniques and tools for reducing cost and improving quality in health organizations. It covers the basics of operations management and explains how operation and process improvement relates to healthcare trends. In addition, this course introduces the theories and tools related to organizational and process improvement.

Prerequisite: MHA 629

MHA 650. Basic Statistics. (3 Credit Hours)

This course provides students foundational skills needed to analyze quantitative and qualitative data using statistical techniques. The course emphasizes the use of computer-based analysis techniques while addressing the need for public health informatics. Topics covered include data acquisition, types of data, univariate and bivariate data summarization techniques, tabular and graphical data presentation, the use of inferential statistical techniques and multivariate statistical techniques. After completing this course students will be able to apply statistical techniques for data analysis and interpret the results of the analysis in order to make decisions about public health programs and policy.

MHA 741. Organizational Dev II Process & Tools. (3 Credit Hours)

This course is about operations management and the strategic implementation of programs, techniques, and tools for reducing cost and improving quality in health organizations. It covers the basics of operations management and explains how operation and process improvement relates to health care trends. In addition, this course introduces the theories and tools related to organizational and process improvement. This course will provide hands-on learning opportunities for students to discover and practice quality improvement theories and tools through practical application. At the conclusion, the student will be able to apply basic quality and continuous improvement tools in a work or personal setting.

MHA 742. Strategy Formulation and Implementation. (2 Credit Hours)

This course examines the theory and practice of organizational strategy development and implementation. The student will be exposed to the history of modern strategy theory, analytical frameworks and decision methodologies. Finally, implementation issues will be addressed. This course makes extensive use of business case methodology, with a focus on how strategies are actually developed and implemented.

MHA 748. Organizational Development III. (1 Credit Hour)

This course will provide hands-on learning opportunities for students to discover and practice quality improvement theories and tools through practical application. Lessons will incorporate a series of the M.H.A. curriculum including personal experiences, discovering how to improve organizational systems and processes. At the outcome of the class, the student will be able to apply basic quality and continuous improvement tools in a work or personal setting.

MHA 749. Field Based Learning. (3 Credit Hours)

This course serves a culminating experience in which students are expected to apply knowledge gained from their graduate experience. The course is designed to provide a field-based experience in which students demonstrate mastery of the programs curriculum and allow an opportunity for closure and connection between courses. The purpose of this field-based experience is to facilitate the integration and synthesis of program content through critical thinking; it is also a turning point for the student from education to professional practice.

Prerequisite: Students must have 40 credit hours completed and/or in-progress to register.

MHA 749A. Field Based Learning Contuation. (0 Credit Hours)

The Field-Based Learinging continuation course. Students may take up to two terms to complete the Field Based Learning course. Students must register for the continuation course if a second term is needed to complete requirements.

MHA 760. Health System Emergency Management. (2 Credit Hours)

The Health System Emergency Management course is designed to provide students with a core foundation across three areas of emergency management including: (1) the policy basis for health care emergency management preparation, response, and recovery; (2) a focus on facility-level management and leadership when preparing for emergencies, carrying out operations , and positioning an organization to recover from an event; and (3) learn from past tragic mass casualty events by studying emergency response and recovery operations, including how these events influenced subsequent policy developments around emergency response. The course will take a broad view of emergency response, considering both natural and man-made events throughout various regions of the United States and will consider the health care delivery and public health implications of local and regional emergencies.

MHA 801. Professional Development Seminar I. (2 Credit Hours)

Professional Development Seminar I is designed to help students build interpersonal skills, assemble key knowledge and bridge theory with practice. Drawing on the benefits of a team-based curriculum while providing the flexibility of an on-line degree needed by working professionals, the Professional Development Seminars let students demonstrate their learning with faculty, support the growth and understanding of peers, and integrate the NCHL competencies into their academic and practical work. Select topics that will be addressed include personal leadership, understanding differences in others, evidence based scholarship, graduate writing, and competency-based education. Students will begin creating a Leadership Development Plan that will they will build on through these seminars. Students will have the opportunity to meet with their academic advisor and discuss their leadership develop plan and Career Portfolio for the first phase of their academic program.

MHA 802. Professional Development Seminar II. (1 Credit Hour)

Professional Development Seminar II is designed to help students build interpersonal skills, apply key knowledge in change management, and bridge theory with practice as they continue to develop their Career Portfolio. Drawing on the benefits of a team-based curriculum while providing the flexibility of an online degree needed by working professionals, learners demonstrate their learning with faculty, support the growth and understanding of peers, and integrate the NCHL competencies into their academic and practical work. Students will have the opportunity to meet with their academic advisor and discuss and refine their leadership develop plan and Career Portfolio.

Prerequisite: MHA 801

MHA 803. Professional Development Seminar III. (1 Credit Hour)

Professional Development Seminar III is designed to help students apply and build interpersonal skills required for health care leadership, assemble key knowledge related to governance and bridge theory as they build key relationships with key leaders. Drawing on the benefits of a team-based curriculum while providing the flexibility of an online degree needed by working professionals, the seminar lets learners demonstrate their learning with faculty, support the growth and understanding of peers, and integrate the NCHL competencies into their academic and practical work. Students will have the opportunity to meet with their academic advisor and complete the leadership develop plan and Career Portfolio, as they prepare for professional advancement in health care administration.

Prerequisites: MHA 801, MHA 802

MHA 805. Professional Development Seminar II. (2 Credit Hours)