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Program Coordinator: Robert Shafner
508-929-8739
email: rshafner@worcester.edu
Curriculum Outline
The Master of Science in Health Care Administration is a practice
oriented, thirty-six semester hour program designed primarily
for practicing clinicians who have assumed or expect to assume
managerial responsibilities and who wish to gain skills and
knowledge required for the management and administration of
health care facilities such as hospitals, clinics, extended
care facilities, and group practices.
The defining theme of the program is to prepare leaders within
the many practices, specialties and sub-specialties of the
health care delivery system. The emphasis on leadership imposes
a generalist orientation rather than a narrower focus on a
particular field such as hospital management. While not ignoring
theory and policy issues, the program prioritizes managerial
skills. It is built around a set of core competencies comprising
a common body of knowledge and a common “tool kit”
of techniques essential to leaders in the health care field.
The program prepares health-care leaders to function in both
nonprofit and for profit organizations.
The nine core courses provide the necessary theoretical and
practical background for the exercise of managerial functions
in a health care setting. The capstone course, depending on
the student’s professional experience, provides an opportunity
either to gain professional experience at a managerial level
or to add to the store of applied knowledge relevant to the
management of a specific function or type of organization.
The graduate advisor will assist students in locating or choosing
an appropriate capstone experience or project. The two elective
courses allow ample opportunities for students to acquire
advanced knowledge in a functional or theoretical area related
to their personal interest or career direction.
The program will make a serious effort to assist students
in connecting with a group of peers with whom they will share
learning experiences during the program and continue to be
resources for one another as they pursue their careers after
graduation.
Suggested Sequence of Courses for a Typical Student
First Year
Semester 1:
HC 900 Health Care Systems
HC 901 Management/Organizational Behavior for Health Care
Professionals
Semester 2: HC 902 Statistical Methods and Inference for
Health Care Professionals
HC 903 Accounting and Budgeting for Health Care Professionals
Summer
HC 904 Financial Management in the Health Care Organization
HC 905 Marketing the Health Care Organization
Second Year
Semester 1:
HC 906 Health Care Management Information Systems
HC 907 Operations and Quality Management in the Health Care
Organization
Semester 2: HC 908 Legal, Regulatory and Ethical Issues
in Health Care
Elective
Summer Elective
Capstone course of experience
Curriculum
Core Courses: Required: 9-courses, 27 credit hours. Students
who demonstrate equivalent academic background may be allowed
to substitute electives for one or more core courses.)
HC 900 Health Care Systems
HC 901 Management and Organizational Behavior for Health Care
Professionals
HC 902 Statistical Methods and Inference for Health Care Professionals
HC 903 Accounting and Budgeting for Health Care Professionals
HC 904 Financial Management in the Health Care Organization
HC 905 Marketing the Health Care Organization
HC 906 Health Care Management Information Systems
HC 907 Operations and Quality Management in the Health Care
Organization
HC 908 Legal, Regulatory and Ethical Issues in Health Care
Electives: 6 credit hours, choose 2 of the following:
HC 926 Human Resources Management in the health Care Organization
HC 936 Economics of Health Care
HC 946 Epidemiology
HC 956 Politics and Policies in Health Care
HC 956 Politics and Policies in Health Care Reimbursement
HC 976 Seminar: Current Issues in Health Care
Note: Many new and existing courses could be added to
this list.
Capstone: 3 credit hours, choose 1 of the following
HC 986 Internship in Health Care
HC 996 Health Care Action/Research Project
Total Program: 12 courses, 36 credit hoursHealth Care
Administration Courses (Graduate)
HC/HE 900 Health Care Systems
Historical development of the health care system and recent
trends in organization, administration and legislation
3 credits.
HC 901 Management and Organizational Behavior for Health
Care Professionals
Prerequisite: HC 190
Management and organizational theory applied to the health
care organization. Motivation and leadership, work group dynamics,
communications and negotiations. Organizational design, change
and motivation.
3 credits.
HC/HE 902 Statistical Methods and Inference for Health
Care Professionals
Prerequisite: HC 900, HC 901
Frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and
variability, hypothesis testing, probability, correlation,
regression, analysis of variance applied to typical problems
encountered in a health care setting.
3 credits.
HC 903 Accounting and Budgeting for Health Care Professionals
Prerequisite: HC 900, HC 901
The accounting cycle, cost analysis, cost-volume relationships,
typical budgeting systems, responsibility accounting and variance
analysis, cash-budgeting systems, responsibility accounting
and variance analysis, cash-flow planning and the evaluation
of capital projects, interpretation of financial statements.
3 credits.
HC/BA 904 Financial Management in the Health Care Organization
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 901, HC 903
The role of finance in strategic planning for the health care
organization, theory of value with special considerations
for nonprofits, capital budgeting and planning, working capital
and liquidity management with emphasis on reimbursement
structures, pricing and other problems unique to the health-care
organization.
3 credits.
HC/NM 905 Marketing the Health Care Organization
Prerequisites: HGC 900, HC 901
Application of marketing tools and concepts to health care
organizations. Market research and project development,
pricing, publicity, and delivery systems.
3 credits.
HC 906 Health Care Management Information Systems
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 902
Analysis of information needs and flows in the health care
organization. Design and implementation of information systems
to support efficient operations as well as managerial planning,
control, and decision making.
3 credits.
HC 907 Operations and Quality Management in the Health
Care Organization
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 902, HC 906
Analysis of operations in the health care organization from
the perspective of continuously improving efficiency and quality.
Data based decision making, quantitative models and several
approaches to quality management (TQM. CQI) are examined.
3 credits.
HC/NM 908 Legal, Regulatory and Ethical Issues in Health
Care
Prerequisite: HC 900
An overview of the legal and regulatory framework governing
health care from both the manager and the client’s point
of view. Legal rights and duties of patients and health-care
providers, hospital liability, hospital-physician relationships,
patients’ rights, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality,
negligence and malpractice.
3 credits.
Electives: 6 credit hours, choose 2 of the following
HC 926 Human Resources Management in the Health Care Organization
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 901
Topics discussed include employee relations, employee benefits,
employment discrimination, affirmative action, training and
career development, assessment, liability and risk management,
unions, collective bargaining and contract administration,
recruitment, turnover and layoffs, diversity issues, compensation
and employee benefit plans.
3 credits.
HC 936 Economics of Health Care
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 904
Study of the economics of the health care industry in the
United States; pricing of health care, alternative delivery
systems, human resources availability, third party payments,
the role of government in planning, regulating and financing
health care.
3 credits.
HC/HE 946 Epidemiology
Prerequisites: HC 900, HC 902
Classic epidemics, evaluation of epidemiological principles
and techniques of investigation and epidemiological analysis
of selected diseases.
3 credits.
HC/HE 956 Politics and Policies in Health Care
Prerequisite: HC 900, HC 904
Health care regulation and cost control by government, state
vs. private regulatory systems, the nature eof political power
and its influence on the delivery of health services through
for profit, and both public and private nonprofit agencies.
3 credits.
HC 976 Seminar: Current Issues in Health Care
Prerequisites: Completion of all required Core courses
A rotating series of seminars involving topics of current
interest or in which a number of students have expressed interest.
These might include Managed Care, Management of Gerontological
Problems, Group Practice Management,
Long-Term Care Organizations, and the like. These seminars
will normally draw on the rich resources of the Worcester
area for guest and visiting lecturers.
3 credits.
Capstone: 3-credit hours, choose 1 of the following
HC 986 Internship in Health Care
Prerequisites: Completion of all required Core courses
The internship in health care administration consists of at
least 135 hours (3 hours of academic credit) of supervised
managerial work in an approved health care setting. The internship
is required of students who do not have significant
employment experience in the field.
3 credits.
HC 996 Health Care Action/Research Project
Prerequisites: Completion of all required Core courses
Students design and implement an Action Research paper. Students
will be encouraged and expected to produce publishable quality
research papers. Designed to provide students with the writing,
analytic, and research tools required by professional public,
healthcare, and not-for-profit managers. Emphasis given to
the methods of problem identification; developing a research
strategy and formal research proposal; identification of secondary
sources
essential to public policy and management research; review
of existing literature and documents; overview of social science
research methods; and, a special emphasis on improving the
student’s ability to write concisely, knowledgeably,
and in a persuasive style.
3 credits.
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