Health Care Administration and Policy, MS

Program Overview

The MS in Health Care Administration and Policy program prepares students to lead positive change in healthcare by focusing on high-value care, customization, and innovation. Through a cohort-based structure, students complete 30 credit hours of coursework, including core courses, focus area electives, and a culminating capstone project with leading healthcare organizations. The program emphasizes population health, health policy, health systems management, and performance improvement, equipping graduates with the knowledge and skills to drive positive outcomes in the healthcare industry.

Program Outline

The curriculum emphasizes:

• High-value care: achieved through leadership, population health, informatics, systems engineering, health care management, health economics, equity, bioethics, and policy.
• Customization: students select electives to meet their goals and interests, focusing on three areas:
• Health policy and advocacy
• Health systems management
• Performance improvement in health care
• Innovation: students tackle challenges in the U.S. health care system by simultaneously:
• Improving population health
• Enhancing patient experience
• Reducing per capita cost of care

Program structure

• Cohort-based: students progress through the program together
• Completion in as few as nine months
• Applied capstone project with leading healthcare organizations and leaders

Overall

This program aims to equip graduates with the knowledge and skills to become leaders in healthcare, driving positive change in the industry.

Outline:

Required coursework

• 30 credit hours including:
• 18 credit hours of core courses:
• Population Health Data Management and Analysis
• Foundation of U.S. Health Systems and Design
• Patient-centered Care
• Health Economics and Policy
• Health Policy and Equity
• Health Care Transformation and Leadership
• 9 credit hours of focus area courses (chosen from the three areas listed above)
• 2 credit hours of research
• 1 credit hour of culminating experience (capstone)

Focus areas

• Health policy and advocacy:
• Focuses on influencing health policy through analysis, communication, and advocacy.
• Prepares students for careers in government agencies, non-profit organizations, and advocacy groups.
• Health systems management:
• Examines the organization, financing, and delivery of healthcare services.
• Prepares students for roles in hospitals, clinics, and health insurance companies.
• Performance improvement in health care:
• Emphasizes using data and process improvement methods to enhance healthcare quality and efficiency.
• Prepares students for careers in consulting, quality improvement organizations, and healthcare institutions.

Research requirement

• Students complete two one-credit research courses in preparation for the capstone project.

Capstone project

• Students apply their learnings to a real-world problem through an applied capstone project with partner healthcare organizations.