MS in New Professional Studies: Health Systems Administration
The aim of the Masters of Science in New Professional Studies in Health Systems Administration is to prepare working professionals in the Health Care field (experienced physicians, nurse leaders, health services administrators and managers from other health care professions and administrative support services) with theoretical, empirical and technological tools necessary to manage Health Care systems and organizations as they are evolving under managed care and capitated financial arrangements.
Overview
The Masters of Science in Health Systems Administration provide students (working health care managers and clinicians) with the skills and tools to serve as leaders and executive level managers in evolving health systems. The 36 credit curriculum was developed in response to needs identified by Fairfax Hospital physicians and the growing demand for advanced, management education in a variety of allied health professions. The program of study is designed to prepare graduates with state of the art technical and humanistic skills to serve as leaders, executives and consultants in health care systems design and management.
The curriculum integrates a wide variety of concepts selected from business management, economics, philosophy, organizational behavior, information technology, social psychology, public policy and law as they uniquely apply to leadership and management of health systems and stewardship of relations with professional providers, consumers and regulators.
| Why is this curriculum different? The interdisciplinary curriculum is designed to prepare graduates with an understanding of the larger socio-political and economic context of which the Health System is a part. It prepares working professionals with knowledge, skills and abilities to make health systems more efficient through better management and alignment of financial resources. Students examine issues and mechanisms of universal access as a social imperative and the feasibility, need and mechanisms of strengthening market factors. They create linkages and alignment between public and private sectors, and among voluntary, market and regulatory forces in the context of a responsible public policy framework. From a community focus students explore how to design seamless systems of clinical care that provide a full continuum of services, and manage systems and resources ethically based on the evaluation of outcomes of care, with reduced/capitated financial resources. |
The curriculum is comprised of 36 credits: Four core courses in New Professional Studies and eight Health Systems courses.
Core Courses in New Professional Studies
Consistent with all MNPS programs, Health Systems Administration students take four MNPS core courses (required):
* = crosslisted as HSCI 708 Health/Medical Informatics (internet based course)
Health Systems Administration Unit Courses
Eight Health Systems Unit courses are required:
Twelve courses complete the Health Systems Administration program course of study (unit and core courses). Click here to browse course descriptions.
Admission Requirements/Student Characteristics
Successful applicants are Physicians and healthcare/allied health professionals and technical management specialists with at least a bachelors degree and 3 years of leadership experience in the health field. The curriculum is designed for experienced, working health care professionals with a track record of success in academic studies. An accelerated teaching learning format consistent with "executive" style programs is utilized. Class expectations are rigorous and require that students be able to manage the learning of technically complex material at a fast pace.
Applicants to the program must submit transcripts from all previous college level studies, a letter of interest specifying study goals, a curriculum vitae and completed copy of the GMU Graduate Admissions form. Standardized graduate admission tests may be rquested. Applicants are competitively selected to comprise each program cohort. Cohorts begin studies in January each year.
Program Format and Curriculum Features
The program is scheduled to be convenient for working professions. It employs a 2 year, part-time study schedule of two classes (6 credits) per semester. Classes are held on Friday evenings and Saturday days, every other week. Some courses are offerered on-line via the internet.
Courses support a curriculum that is unique for the following features:
1) Content focuses on individual and team competencies in analytic decision making and how services are provided across institutions and levels of care through integrated pathways. Services are analyzed from both the impact of individual health status and that of enrolled populations and how they affect utilization of health services. Business functions are taught in the context to integrated systems versus individual institutions (eg., financial management examines how risk is incurred and distributed across multiple institutions);
2) Managment skills are taught (breaking from traditional curriculum) not from the context of command, communication and control positions in hierarchical structures, but from the context of leadership in learning organization and as team leaders managing across functional and clinical units. Business and clinical decisions are integrated with competencies in computer applications in health care and clinical decision support systems, clinical case management, evaluation of clinical outcomes and inter-organizational relations;
3) The orientation of integrated managed care is based on the organization and delivery of community based, primary health care service networks. The curriculum prepares graduates to assess health risk, evaluate and understand behavior change in consumers, structure and optimize community oriented primary care networks and full integrated health systems.
Tuition and costs
The total cost of the 24-month, 36 credit program is $18,000. Paid on a $3000.00 per semester basis over the two years of the program. Tuition covers textbooks and reading materials. For further information or to discuss questions about the program or application process, contact Dr. PJ Maddox, Coordinator Health Systems Administration GMU (703-993-1982).
E-mail: pmaddox@gmu.edu.
Course Description:
A survey course using an epidemiological framework to explore selected quantitative methods in addressing management problems and decisi ons in health care delivery systems. Managerial applications in the use of anal ytic techniques as employed to support decision making in health care systems re lated to cost-benefit analysis, reducing clinical variability, program and decis ion analysis using system and population based data. Also the application of fo recasting, linear programming, network models and selected biostatistical techn iques as applied in health systems management. Course Title: Managerial Accounting in Health Care Organizations :HSCI 702 (3:3:0) Prerequisites: HSCI 578 or be admitted to a graduate Nurs ing Major (MSN or PhD) or Health Systems Management and Policy major. Course Description: A practical examination of the controllership function in health care organizations and systems (profit and not for profit) with emphasis on policy formulation and evaluation of performance, including cost methods and systems, measurement criteria, and managerial planning, methods and techniques.Course Title: Financial Management of Health Systems :HSCI 703 (3:3:0)
Prerequisites: HSCI 578 or be admitted to a graduate Nurs ing Major (MSN or PhD) or Health Systems Management and Policy major.
Course Description:
An examination of the tools and methods of financial mana gement in Health Care organizations and systems with emphasis on allocation and use of funds. Analysis of costs and constraints of alternative source of funds a nd the application of financial decision instruments and their effect on operati onal management and market value of the entity is covered.
Course Title: Contemporary Issues in Health Systems Leade rship and Management :HSCI 704 (3:3:0)
Course Description:
Analysis of management theory and practice from recently evolving works that identify, analyze and resolve strategic organizational probl ems and issues in health care systems. Applied leadership strategy to effective ly manage a variety of critical issues in health are systems, such as: Organiz ational development, change management, human relations and diversity, quality m anagement for organizational and clinical effectiveness, technology, competing p riorities, conflicting constituencies, delivery system redesign and health servi ces research is covered.
Course Title: Strategic Management and Marketing in Health Care :HSCI 705 (3:3:0)
Prerequisites: HSCI 578 or be admitted to a graduate Nurs ing Major (MSN or PhD) or Health Systems Management and Policy major.
Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to develop executive skills for strategic decision making through the use of marketing based tools and tech niques as applied in Health Care Systems: Strategic planning, market research a nd opportunity/risk analysis, customer assessment, market segmentation and life cycle assessment for health care services in managed care and non-managed care e nvironments.
Course Title: Integrated Health Systems Management :HSCI 706 (3:3:0)
Prerequisites: HSCI 578 or be admitted to a graduate Nurs ing Major (MSN or PhD) or Health Systems Management and Policy major.
Course Description:
Exploration of emerging structures for financing and deli very of comprehensive health services in integrated health systems. Successful development and management of alliances, provider hospital organizations and man aged care systems with an emphasis on strategies for vertical integration, commu nity partnering, contract negotiation, governance and management of antitrust si tuations.
Course Title: Health Care Management Policy, Law and Ethics :HSCI 707 (3:3:0)
Course Description:
A survey course that prepares Health Care executives to u nderstand selected legal and ethical principles as applied to complex decision m aking and policy analysis in the management of health care organizations and sys tems. Legal relationships (torts and contracts) and ethical references will be used for selective managerial application in the analysis and management of orga nizational and clinical dilemmas, statutory and regulatory trends and the manage ment of scarce resources and interdisciplinary teams in Health Systems.
Course Title: HEALTH MANAGEMENT PRACTICUM AND CAPSTONE SEMINAR (MNPS 704/HSCI 710)
Catalog Description: A team based field practicum in health management, problem analysis and project management in a Health Care/Service Organization. Learning teams define a complex problem in the assigned facility and conduct an analysis of the problem with recommendations for management decision action. Analysis of the problem provides the context in which theoretical concepts and management skills are applied to conduct the project. Practicum seminar uses case study analyses to explore problems and apply theory selectively to solving problems in a variety of situations and Health Care/Service Organizations .
Course Title: OPERATIONS/QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES (HSCI 709)
Catalog Description: Examines the operations and quality management functions of a Health Care/Service Organization from a strategic viewpoint. From the perspective of the Healthcare Manager, explores the contributions of operations research and quality management to to improve delivery and production of Health Services and Business processes. Explores contemporary performance measures (quality and productivity) useful for improving process performance and selected decision support system methods from operations management for clinical and administrative purposes in Healthcare organizations.
Course Title: Health Economics (HSCI 711/N825)
Catalog Description:The emphasis of the course is to give Healthcare managers an understanding of economic efficiency in the US health system. Microeconomic methods are used to examine markets and resources in health and medical care. Health care is examined as a commodity and the demand for health and medical care services, provider behavior, and the function and behavior of insurance markets is explored. Current topics such as financing arrangements and trends, insurance reform, rationing, price regulation and provider competition are included. Economic justification of the Government role and involvement in financing and regulating health care is examined through historical and current health reform proposals.
MNPS Core Courses:MNPA 701 The New Professionalism: Theory and Practice 3
MNPS 702 The New Professional as Reflective Practitioner 3
MNPS 703 Technology and Learning in the New Professions 3
MNPS 704 Research Methodologies in the New Professions 3
Unit Courses (Courses in the major):HSCI 701 Quantitative Decision Making in Health
Systems Management 3
PUBP 833 Topics in Public Policy:Health Economics and Policy 3
HSCI 702 Managerial Accounting in Health Systems 3
HSCI 703 Financial Management of Health Systems 3
HSCI 704 Contemporary Issues in Health Systems Leadership 3
HSCI 705 Strategic Management and Marketing in Health Care 3
HSCI 706 Integrated Health Systems Management 3
HSCI 707 Health Care Management Policy, Law and Ethics 3
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