HELP 2009-2010 University Catalog Health Systems Management, MS Print-Friendly Page

Banner Code:  HH-MS-HSMG

This program provides students with the skills and tools to work as leaders and executive-level managers in evolving health systems, health policy analysts, or consultants and managers of electronic commerce and technology products and enterprises in the health system. The curriculum was developed in response to the demand for advanced health management and policy preparation for a variety of health care and allied health professionals. Five concentrations are offered: executive management, health information systems, health care security and privacy, health policy analysis, and risk management and patient safety.

The program of study offers state-of-the-art technical and humanistic skills so that graduates may serve as leaders, managers, consultants, and health policy advisors and analysts in various settings. Graduates are prepared to work in public and private health care systems (including public health agencies); legislative arenas and policy-related professional and advocacy organizations; and health accreditation and regulatory organizations. The curriculum integrates concepts from a variety of disciplines such as business management, economics, philosophy, organizational behavior, information technology, social psychology, public policy, law, and ethics as they uniquely apply to health systems and technology management, assisted living and senior housing services administration, and health policy formulation. 

The interdisciplinary curriculum is designed to prepare graduates with an understanding of the larger sociopolitical, global health, and economic contexts in which the U.S. health system operates. It provides working professionals with leadership knowledge and managerial skills and abilities that contribute to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health systems and alignment of decisions and resources to optimize organizational and health-related public policy goals. Students examine social imperatives for access to health services and the feasibility, need, and mechanisms of market factors. They create links and alignment between public and private sectors and among voluntary, market, and regulatory forces in the context of a variety of public policy frameworks. Students explore the design and management of seamless systems of care, information technology, and services that support the providers of health-related care and services over the life span continuum. Using ethical principles, students explore approaches to improving access to care and services and the quality and safety of health systems and their integration to maximize quality of life and community health.

Admission Procedures and Requirements

Health care professionals with a baccalaureate degree and at least three years of recent leadership experience in a health or related management, public policy, or technology field are eligible to apply. Applicants must submit the following: transcripts from all previous college-level studies, a letter of interest specifying study goals, a curriculum vita, and a complete Mason graduate admissions form. GRE or GMAT scores may be requested if the applicant does not have a graduate degree or has an undergraduate GPA lower than a 3.00. Applicants are competitively selected. Admitted students begin study in January and August each year. Provisional admission can be made for students whose undergraduate GPA is lower than 3.00, but whose work since school indicates a high likelihood of success in graduate work. Students admitted provisionally with lower than a 3.00 GPA must achieve a 3.00 GPA in the first 12 credits of graduate work.

Program Format and Curriculum Features

The program schedule is geared toward working professionals. The usual schedule for students involves part-time study, comprising two classes (6 credits) per semester. Classes are held primarily in evenings, with some Saturday daytime classes. Selected courses also are available via the Internet.

Courses offer the following unique features:

• Content focuses on individual competencies in analytic decision making, and how services are provided across institutions and levels of care through integrated systems. Services are analyzed according to their effect on individual health status and enrolled populations, and how individuals and groups affect the use of health services and outcomes. Business functions are taught in the context of integrated systems versus individual institutions. For example, financial management examines how risk is incurred and distributed across multiple institutions.
• Management skills are taught from the contexts of leadership in learning organizations and as team leaders managing self-directed professionals across functional and specialized service units. Business and clinical decisions are integrated with competencies in information systems and data management for effective administrative operations in health-related organizations, clinical decision support systems, quality and safety improvement efforts (including evaluation of clinical outcomes), and inter organizational relations and operations.
• Managerial competencies are also taught relating concepts of integrated services and managed care, based on optimization of the delivery of care and services to targeted populations in the community and market. The curriculum prepares graduates to assess health risks, understand consumer behavior, and structure community networks, specialty services, and integrated health systems.
• Health policy curriculum teaches applied public policy skills that support the development and analysis of health policy and the management of political, legislative, and regulatory processes involving the financing and service delivery in the health industry and health-related technology and information management, and governing health professionals practice.