Curriculum: MS in Pharmacy Leadership

This course provides an introduction and overview to healthcare leadership, human resources management, and organizational behavior in healthcare settings, reflecting the uniqueness of this sector as well as the universal concepts and principles utilized in the development of effective healthcare administrators and leaders. This course integrates theory with practice through readings, written assignments, group projects, and discussion boards from different organizational perspectives. The development of leadership, managerial and organizational skills will be accomplished through a strong emphasis on self-reflection and self-analysis utilizing the tools of the course. This course aims to provide a relevant understanding of organizational dynamics such as performance, organizational culture, teamwork, individual and shared values, and cultural competency. It will examine how healthcare leaders and their organizations relate to each other internally and to their external environments. Topics include values-driven leadership, team effectiveness, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, conflict management, human resources management, employee behavior and appraisal, and assessment and evaluation of leadership performance. This course emphasizes the reflection of the students’ past and current experiences with the integration of current evidence-based leadership and human resources management principles. The students will be required to submit their feedback from self-evaluation assignments, surveys, inventory tools, and group work that is intended to provide insight, awareness, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional and personal development for ongoing growth in healthcare leadership roles.

This course present students with a comprehensive overview of quality management principles, concepts and tools used in healthcare with a special emphasis in pharmacy practice. Through an analysis of pharmacy -related cases, students will have the opportunity to evaluate the relationship between leadership principles and quality improvement. Topics include quality performance measurement, culture of quality, techniques for quality leadership, patient engagement in quality and the use of technology in quality improvement.

Course will provide an understanding of Human Resources as it pertains to management in Pharmacy. It will include presentations and discussion on employment laws, discipline, the selection and the placement process as well as, developing and recognizing your employees.

This course presents students with techniques , methods and concepts to develop effective communication skills as a pharmacy leader. Through the utilization of scenario exercises, online discussion boards, video technology and respective field work, students will develop a comprehensive set of communication skills. Topics include analysis of multiple communication techniques, recognition of cultural differences with respect to communication expectations, developing and spreading a vision, applying the art of both persuasion and feedback, and identifying and framing audiences. Skills learned through this coursework will prepare students to communication their viewpoints, expectations and vision as a leader in the profession of pharmacy.

This course covers the elements of the medication use system and will assist students in developing skills to assume a leadership role in devising and implementing process improvements of use of health care technologies (electronic health record, bar codes, robotics, smart devices) in the medication system along with HIT standards for interface and integration, and mobile health technologies. Students will gain an understanding of personal health records and models of community and regional information networks. Course content will include activities in workflow process mapping and workflow redesign, project management, and processes for documentation and coding.

This course provides an overview of economics and marketplace topics related to pharmacy, with particular emphasis on topics relevant to the pharmaceutical industry and health benefit payment models. This course will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of Pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research. Pharmacy business aspects of pharmaceutical regulation and pricing, contracts and purchasing models, group purchasing organizations, MTM reimbursement, specialty pharmacy, and value based clinical and financial models for future health care delivery will all be addressed in the course content. Innovation and marketing will also be included with cases and application activities.

This course covers selected financial and managerial aspects of healthcare financial management, specifically designed for Pharmacists. It provides a broad introduction to key concepts, issues, tools, and vocabulary useful for managers, department heads, and owners. There are three main topic areas covered in the course: financial accounting; finance; and managerial accounting. The focus is on the understanding and application of the accounting information in healthcare with emphasis on addressing use within the pharmacy.

This course is the first of a three-course sequence (Capstone I, II and III; PHLD 8061, 8062, and 8063) that requires the design, implementation and presentation of results for a Capstone Research Project. In this course, Capstone I (PHLD 8061), students will receive instruction and gain experience in researching a Capstone project topic, including using online information sources, organizing acquired information and references with reference manager software, and using AMA/APHA as proper reference citation formats. In addition, course faculty will provide lectures and individual consulting sessions with each student to guide them in selecting an appropriate Capstone topic and developing a full Capstone project proposal using the template provided.  In addition, students will identify and recommend possible Capstone Advisory Committee members for their project.

This course is the second of a three-course sequence (Capstone I, II and III; PHLD 8061, 8062, and 8063) that requires the design, implementation, and presentation of results for a Capstone Research Project. In this course, Capstone II (PHLD 8062), students will receive instruction and gain experience in the implementation of a research project, including IRB submission, basic statistical analysis, scientific writing, and manuscript preparation. In addition, course faculty will provide lectures and individual consulting sessions with each student to guide them in continuing their research according to project timelines. Students will also provide regular progress reports to Capstone Committee members and submit them as assignments. At the conclusion of Capstone II, the student will have IRB approval for their research, most of their data collected, and an initial draft of their research manuscript.

This course is the third of a three-course sequence (Capstone I, II and III; PHLD 8061, 8062, and 8063) that requires the design, implementation and presentation of results for a Capstone Research Project. Capstone III (PHLD 8063) should be taken in the last semester before graduation. In this course, students will conclude their research projects under the guidance of their Capstone Advisory Committee; complete a final manuscript, acceptable for submission to a chosen publication; and deliver a final oral presentation of their research to their Capstone Advisory Committee, Program Director, and invited guests of the program. The final research project and presentation should demonstrate the students’ conceptual, analytical, research, and practical skills acquired and developed throughout the courses in the program.

The course is intended to provide the Master of Health Administration (MHA) student and future manager with a systems perspective of US health and health care structure and function. As the introductory course in the MHA program, it is to provide the fundamentals for all courses that follow, including finance and economics, strategy, quality improvement, policy and law, and others. Topics include an overview of the history, organization, and effectiveness of United States health care and public health systems, health system governance structures, roles, responsibilities as well as determinants of health, need, access and utilization.

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the structure, systems and policies of health care delivery in the United States. The major structural/system issues include the "big three" or "universal issues" i.e., access quality and costs, which includes Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. Other system topics include the uninsured, health care professions, hospitals, long-term care, mental health, integrated health care systems, the Veterans Administration Health Systems, pharmaceuticals and technology. The course prepares learners to confront the underlying values and ethics that drive the politics of the health care system and to understand and apply basic concepts in policy analysis and advocacy in practice settings. Discussions and assignments will focus on the development of public policy concerning medical care and public health and the relationship between public decisions and the marketplace. Topics include health policy formulation, implementation and evaluation.

This course presents an introduction to the legal and ethical issues that arise in management of health services organizations. Topics include: ethics in business and clinical decision making, tools for understanding ethics and ethical analysis, professional and organizational guidelines in making ethical decisions, including codes of ethics and mission statements, organizational responses to ethical issues, including ethics processes, such as institutional ethics committees and institutional review boards,conflicts of commitment and conflicts of interest,patient and community concerns and end of life decisions. Additionally, the course will review legal principles development, application and assessment, and, resource allocation and social responsibility. Other topics covered include: liability, health care institutions as corporations, the nature and scope of public health authority, antitrust, fraud and abuse, privacy and confidentiality, tax implications, regulatory oversight, legal requirements for access to health care, nondiscrimination, conflicts of interest and constitutional constraints on public health initiatives.

This course will provide an overview of global health problems and national health systems to provide the student with a perspective on how societies approach health and health care including cultural, economic and political factors. National systems from the developed and under-developed world will be examined and contrasted, including those of England, Canada, and Cuba. In addition to national systems, the roles played by certain global/international systems such as the World Health Organization, certain UN agencies and NGOs will be explored.

The course examines the study of health and disease in populations from a health management and analytical perspective. Topics include: population health and status assessment, socio-cultural factors, epidemiological methods, study designs, statistical analysis and application, the interpretation of data, and the application of findings for managerial decision-making. Statistical topics include descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, statistical distribution, estimation, hypotheses testing, chi-square tests, and simple and multiple linear regression.

This course introduces the discipline of health informatics and covers emerging trends. Various information systems, technologies and applicationsutilized in the context of health and healthcare are introduced. Their characteristics, strengths, challenges, purpose and impact are taught. Impact on patients, populations and healthcare providers is emphasized. Factors influencing adoption and use of various clinical and health information systems and technologies are taught. Key clinical and health information technologies and systems such as electronic health records, health information exchanges, personal health records, public health information systems and mobile health technologies are introduced in this course.Topics such as telemedicine, interoperability and technical concepts are taught, and an evaluation framework is applied.

This course will introduce students to a variety of cutting edge analytics and business intelligence tools applicable to health or healthcare data. Both structured and unstructured data will be introduced in this course. The coursewill also address topics related to data governance and data quality and various other topics relevant to health data management. This course is predominately hands-on and students willcomplete a project to demonstrate skills acquired.Students will learn how other industries have applied similar or the same tools.

This is the first in a series of two courses covering the Economics of Health Care. This course will provide a broad overview of the field of health economics. The course will examine how standard concepts and methods in economics can be used to understand health-related decisions made by individuals and firms, using the basic framework of economics to analyze the behavior of consumers, insurers, physicians, and hospitals. It will also study the application of economics to health care policy, with a focus on how economic analysis can assist in the development of market and non-market solutions to various health care problems. The tools of economics are applied to both managerial issues such as pricing decisions and policy issues such as the medically uninsured.Topics include economic analysis and application to decision making, health care payment methods, including Medicare's payment systems for hospitals and physicians, and risk-adjusted capitation payment systems.

This course follows upon HCA7021 and introduces the principles, methods and concepts of three different aspects of marketplace strategic management as it relates to health care organizations: 1) Strategic planning and management, 2) Marketing, 3) Governance. The focus is not only on the processes of strategic management, marketing and governance but also on strategic learning and development. Methods for evaluating and analyzing the environment external to the organization will include discussions of transparency, disruptive technologies and crisis prevention/management. The interaction of forces inside the organization such as marketing, governance, corporate culture, and resources will be analyzed for their impact on the organization and its strategic direction.

The quality of health care in the United States has garnered significant attention among health care professionals and the public. This course will review: (1) the current state of the quality of health care in the United States; (2) approaches to assess quality of health care, and (3) strategies to improve the quality of care. These include the fundamentals of health program planning and evaluation, with an emphasis on developing skills in formative, outcome, and impact data collection and analysis. Emphasizes the use of the Baldrige Healthcare Criteria for Performance Excellence for designing, implementing, and improving organizational frameworks for performance excellence. Topics include program or project management, operations assessment, and improvement.