90-761 Principles of Healthcare Management
This survey course provides an introduction to the U.S. health care system and gives students a foundation of factual knowledge and concepts for subsequent courses in the Master of Science of Health Care Policy and Management (HCPM) curriculum. The course focuses on the ways in which health care is structured and how the different components of the system interact with one another in such a way that changes in one inevitably affect the others. We will also examine how efforts to reform one component of the health care system often have unintended consequences on the others.
The learning objectives of this course are to:
- Gain factual knowledge of the broad elements and overall principles of the U.S. health care system.
- Develop an understanding of the dynamics of the health system involving the interaction of patients, health care providers, the sources of health care financing, insurance and regulatory and quasi-regulatory organizations.
- Understand the key external forces that influence health services including social, economic, political, demographic and epidemiological factors.
- Describe significant components of the U.S. health care system, discuss the interaction among elements of the health system, review the ongoing development of health care services and systems, and relate health services to major social and other external forces.
- Define and apply health services terms.
- Acquire and enhance skills in gathering and presenting information about the U.S. health care system, and demonstrate familiarity with major sources of information on health service delivery.
