Healthcare Leadership

This course will provide students with an overdrive of the complexity of the U.S. healthcare system. The course will provide students with insight into multiple concentrations and disciplines, including state and federal legislative implications regarding healthcare, economic effects on the healthcare system, business management, human resources, public relations, resource allocation, politics, and legal and ethical ramifications in healthcare.

This course will introduce students to creating, implementing, embedding, and sustaining innovation in healthcare. All sectors of healthcare are involved and struggling with innovation as a means of improving the overall quality of care, experience, and outcomes and decreasing the cost and inefficiencies for all stakeholders. By the end of this course, students will have gained a theoretical and practical understanding of healthcare innovation and quality. Students will be able to use their understanding in these diverse areas within the healthcare ecosystem to provide solutions for problems through the end-to-end innovation process.

This course is designed to make the student aware of well-established and innovative best practices that are necessary for making strategic decisions in the competitive environment of healthcare. The class will offer an opportunity to explore various aspects of formulating, monitoring, and leading strategies while considering the complexity of the structure and processes in healthcare. The course identifies the forecasting methods, future research in healthcare, dynamics of organization’s culture and analysis, and other issues related to strategic planning in healthcare. Real-life projects engage the student in making evidence-based and value-driven decisions while being cognizant of culture, regulations, and
the dynamic nature of the industry. Discussions from the readings, case studies, and assignments focus on developing systems thinking and strategic intuition that is vigilant of the drivers of change, leadership skills, and countermeasures by competitors.

The Keystone Project course is the culminating experience of the program study. The Keystone Project will consist of an independent research study and/or a professional action project.  A suitable project involves both secondary (library) and primary (field) research on a topic pertinent to the field of management, leadership and human services. Students engage in the process of planning, collecting, analyzing and presenting data. As a result, students move from consumer to creator of new knowledge. The culminating product is a written report of the investigation and a presentation to the course professor and peers.