Graduate Certificate in Health Care Management

3 Semester Units

Health Care in America provides a comprehensive overview of the basic structures and operations of the US health system, from its historical origins and resources, to its individual services, cost, and quality. Using a unique “systems” approach, it brings together an extraordinary breadth of information and a solid overview of how the various components fit together.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Emphasize why it is important for health care managers to understand the intricacies of the health care delivery system.
• Appreciate the implications of the above concepts for medical care delivery and for the promotion of health and prevention of disease.
• Explore some of the recent developments and key forces that will likely shape the delivery of health services in the future.
• Differentiate between the concepts of group insurance, self-insurance, individual health insurance, and managed care.
• Develop an understanding of the various types of outpatient settings and services.
• Analyze the future challenges in wellness and prevention, chronic care, and long-term care.

3 Semester Units

Ethical and Legal Issues for Health Care Professionals will help students prepare for the ethical issues they will experience on the job and teach them how to evaluate the right and wrong courses of action when faced with complicated legal problems. Through contemporary topics presented with a real-world perspective, students will develop the critical thinking skills needed for the moral decisions they will encounter in the health care environment.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Incorporate the concepts of ethics in the resolution of health care ethical dilemmas.
• Probe the importance, development, structure, and goals of ethics committees.
• Create an inventory of the important laws designed to protect each individual’s rights.
• Interpret how ethical and legal issues described in any single case have applicability to the various health professions.
• Discover how practicing one’s professional code of ethics can assist in resolving the day-to-day issues that arise during the care of patients.
• Assess the importance of understanding the physician-patient relationship.

3 Semester Units

Multicultural Health Care explores multicultural models of health, illness, and treatments or therapies to deepen the student’s understanding of the scientific, sociocultural, philosophical, psychological, and spiritual foundations of various unconventional healing systems and their approaches to prevention, health promotion, healing, and maintenance of well-being. These multicultural or alternative approaches to health care and to modern conventional medicine are seen as complementary to the biomedical model as they blend body/mind/spirit, science, tradition, and cross-cultural avenues of diagnosis.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Examine how historical factors, behaviors, and belief systems within a particular culture influence a person’s views of health, illness, treatment, and health care.
• Analyze the major concepts and principles governing the multicultural healing approaches or alternative healing systems presented throughout this course.
• Define and explain common terms related to the various alternative-healing systems discussed.
• Compare and contrast some of the emotional, spiritual, psychological, physical, geographical, and behavioral factors influencing health, the manifestation of illnesses, and the therapeutic techniques used in the various cultural healing systems presented.
• Assess various approaches practitioners use to diagnose and treat illnesses within their particular medical system.

3 Semester Units

Organizational Behavior in Health Care integrates the study of organizational behavior and organizational theory within the dynamic context of the healthcare industry. Students will explore healthcare organizations from both the micro-level (individual behavior in leadership, intrapersonal and interpersonal issues, groups and teams, and managing organizational change), as well as the macro-level (the organization as a whole). 

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Analyze the major challenges facing today and tomorrow’s health care organizations and health care managers.
• Evaluate why changes in U.S. demographics affect the healthcare industry.
• Classify the common barriers to communication and utilize various methods to overcome communication barriers.
• Apply the various contingency theories of leadership to today’s work environments.
• Examine how stress can negatively affect individuals and organizations.
• Analyze the importance of group dynamics.