Health Administration (HTH)

Courses and Descriptions

HTH 201 Excel for Healthcare Management and Administration 1 Credits

This course is a refresher on Excel designed to fill gaps in knowledge and application of skills for students who are preparing for their internships. Students will review the essentials of Microsoft Excel. Within seven weeks, students will learn to expertly navigate the Excel user interface, perform basic calculations with formulas and functions, professionally format spreadsheets, and create visualizations of data through charts and graphs. This course will provide students with a practical hands-on opportunity that is designed for students to gain the skills necessary to proficiently create pivot tables, analyze data, utilize more advanced Excel data tools, and interpret statistical results.

HTH 205 Introduction to Health Care 3 Credits

This course is an introduction to the components of the health care industry in the United States and to the interactions of these components in producing and supplying health care. We examine the nature of health, and the various institutions and personnel which seek to provide health services; we explore the means by which we pay for these services; we assess the relationship of technology to provision of health care services; we study the various ways that our government interacts with the providers of health care services; we investigate the ethical implications of issues in health care; and we explore health care sectors from an international perspective.

HTH 215 Population Health Care Management 3 Credits

In this course, we study how disease is distributed in populations and of the factors that influence or determine this distribution. This course introduces the basic methods and tools epidemiologists use to study the origin and control of non-communicable and communicable diseases so that policies and mechanisms to enhance the health of populations can be developed.

Prerequisite(s): MSD 205 or MTH 120 or ENV 200 or PSY 201 or BNS 250.

HTH 225 Health Care Financing 3 Credits

The goals of this course are: (1) to provide a description of how Americans pay for health care; (2) to explain how payment arrangements affect the health care system; and (3) to evaluate newly emerging arrangements. Specifically, we will focus on insurance (both public and private) in the United States, provider payment reform, the incentives of the parties in these arrangements and how these incentives impact cost containment in health care.

Prerequisite(s): HTH 205 and sophomore standing.

HTH 315 Health Care Law, Ethics and Policy 3 Credits

This course analyzes the role of the law in promoting the quality of health care, organizing the delivery of health care, assuring adequate access to health care, and protecting the rights of those who are provided care within the health care system. It will also examine the public policy, economic, and ethical issues raised by the health care system. Students will not receive credit for completing both HTH 315 and BUS 315.

HTH 336 Economics of Health Care System 3 Credits

This course presents ways in which economic analysis can be used to explain issues in the health care industry. Microeconomics tools will be used to describe the behavior of consumers, producers, and third parties of the health care sector. The course also investigates the role of government in regulating the health care sector, and in providing services to the poor and elderly. Finally, we will use this foundation to examine some recent changes in this industry, and to analyze the most recent proposals for further changes.

HTH 365 Health Care Information Systems 3 Credits

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is one of the most complex technological projects ever undertaken. EHR involves the shared management, potentially on a global scale, of a variety of private, time-sensitive, multimedia data across activities including capture, processing, storage and access. The purpose of this course is to provide the future Health Administration professional with specifics of the socio-technical issues involved in this effort. The goals of this course are to study data standards used in modern EHR systems, technology platforms used to implement EHR in various types of organizations, data governance and regulations associated with health data, analytics that support quality of care and evidence-based practice.

Prerequisite(s): HTH 205; CIS 385 or GSC 385; HTH 215 or CIS 360; and junior standing.

HTH 367 Special Topics in Health Administration 3 Credits

This course covers a current area of health care administration. Topics will vary from semester to semester.

HTH 450 Seminar in Health Research 3 Credits

Students in the course learn to conduct health administration-related research by engaging in an actual community-based research project. At the beginning of the semester, students are assigned to a health-related community-based organization. As a team, students meet with the client, devise a plan of action, collect and analyze data and other information, and write a report to the client. At the end of the semester, students present their findings to the client.

Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

HTH 490 Independent Study in Health Admin 3 Credits

An independent study in health administration allows a student to conduct an in-depth exploration of a topic in health administration under the supervision of a faculty member. The project helps develop a student’s research and written skills.

Prerequisite(s): JR or SR standing, Permission of Instructor.

HTH 491 Health Management Internship 3 Credits

This course provides students minoring in health administration an opportunity to supplement and apply their classroom work in a supervised employment setting with participating firms in the health care sector. Requirements include: a log of daily activities, oral and written reports to the faculty supervisor and a term paper. In addition, the employer will also submit an evaluation of the student’s performance.

Prerequisite(s): HTH 205; junior or senior standing; and permission of faculty supervisor.