online MHA/MBA degree

This course provides new graduate students in the college with an introduction to strategies for success within the university’s adult learning model. Topics include program standards and objectives; graduate-level oral and written communication; locating, evaluating, and citing scholarly resources; and purposes and use of portfolios.

The learner will utilize the theoretical framework of systems thinking as a strategy to address challenges in the health care environment. Topics include complexity science, design thinking, creativity, and flow.

This course covers the skills and techniques managers need to provide leadership and direction within a changing organizational environment. Students will examine evolving demographics and emerging technologies related to innovative talent management, including effective leadership responses to organizational challenges.

This course provides students with the interpersonal skills needed to motivate people in the workplace and the human resources skills necessary to manage group dynamics and create synergy among group members. The course will help to develop high commitment and productivity from people and groups through awareness of one's own values, behaviors, and decision‐making tendencies.

The learner will explore the diverse and expanding regulatory environment of the health sector. Topics include compliance and privacy, the ethical responsibilities inherent in leading regulatory structures within organizations, the specific laws that dictate privacy and compliance, as well as auditing, monitoring, and corrective action.

Students will examine how health policy and organizational governance informs systems and delivery of care, and identify the policies that should be adopted to implement industry trends. Topics include the influence of policy, interest groups, and stakeholders on the health status of a society, as well as how to cultivate effective governance systems within organizations, and the importance of risk-based policy and governance models in the health sector.

This course applies leadership concepts to create organizational change. Students will create a plan to lead an organizational change in which they have no direct authority over necessary decisions. Other topics include leadership theories, organizational theory, levels of organizational change, and transformation leadership.

This course applies quantitative reasoning skills to business problems. Students learn to analyze data using a variety of analytical tools, graphs, tables, and charts. Other topics include formulas, visual representation of quantities, time value of money, and measures of uncertainty.

Learners will respond to developing trends and insights across the health sector that inform workforce development and hiring. Topics include recruitment and retention strategies, succession planning, leadership strategies for a multigenerational workplace, embracing diversity, and considerations for positive morale and engagement.

The learner will explore the emerging intersection of marketing and economics in the health sector. Topics include consumer behavior, market segmentation, and identification of new market opportunities in health care, as well as regional/system commoditization, value proposition and differentiation, branding, and social media strategies in the health sector.

In this course, students examine managerial accounting as part of the business's accounting information system as well as legal aspects of the business enterprise. Topics include managerial accounting and capital budgeting, cost analysis, management planning and control, negotiable instruments, secured transactions, debtor‐creditor relationships, property and insurance, and legal aspects of employment and environment.

This course applies corporate finance concepts to make management decisions. Students discuss methods used to evaluate financial alternatives and create financial plans. Other topics include cash flows, business valuation, working capital, capital budgets, and long‐term financing.

This course examines the importance of effectiveness and efficiency and evaluates the potential trade-offs between them to create value within an organization. Students will learn to apply process analysis, process improvement, supply chain management, and strategic operations decision-making to solve business challenges. Students will understand the entire value chain and how these decisions integrate for efficient and effective performance across a network of organizations.

In this course, you learn to develop marketing strategies, consider how to communicate value to target markets, learn the importance of branding, and look at marketing through digital and social media lenses and the relevance of legacy marketing approaches. You will practice these concepts and apply them by creating your own strategic marketing plan. Your strategic marketing plan is an important preparation for your capstone course, where you will assemble a complete business plan

This course will provide students the opportunity to analyze and create plausible designs for a health care organization. Students will discuss current and future health care consumer utilization trends and environmental impacts, as well as examine the regulatory compliance requirements. Practical application of design and planning for a health care facility will be demonstrated.

The learner will determine how to make sound decisions by utilizing patient data and organizational quality benchmarks in diverse health sector contexts. Topics include health care benchmarking, the management of data privacy, and the electronic medical record, tracking organizational performance, employee productivity and morale, and safety.

This course introduces students to a variety of data analytic solutions. Students will learn how to retrieve real business data and create reports, support business decisions with visual representations of data, manage and improve a business process based on quantitative analysis, analyze long-term trends and patterns in the data, and develop actionable results that drive the business decision-making process.

This course introduces current and aspiring health administrators to the field of gerontology, and the systems and facilities that support these populations. Topics include an examination of the experiences of aging populations across the care continuum, myths and stereotypes of aging, and a survey of the demographic changes occurring in the U.S. that are resulting in larger elder populations.

The learner will operationalize health care sustainability in three ways: personal legacy, organizational environment, and community development. Topics include sustainability in a health sector context, mentorship, board and association leadership, economic analysis and sustainability practice within organizations, and fostering community interactions.

This is the capstone course for the graduate health care programs. The development and presentation of a health care organization’s strategic plan will demonstrate mastery of the critical content as the principles relate to the health care industry. Special emphasis is placed upon consumer demand, market volatility, and regulatory and fiscal constraints from the perspective of strategic management. The learner will demonstrate understanding of the critical importance of strategic management and planning within the dynamic, complex, and evolving nature of the health care industry.