Bachelor of Science in Health Services Course Descriptions

BSHS - 400. Healthcare Issues (3)

Examines the organization and structure of the US healthcare delivery system, including the roles of patient/consumer, payer, provider, educator and regulator, as well as the types of providers and how they coordinate patient care between multiple provider organizations, the reasons for cost inflation and impacts from new technologies. Also studied are the major policy issues of access, cost and quality.

BSHS - 401. Leadership and Management in Healthcare Organizations (3)

Develops an understanding of leadership and management theories and their application to healthcare, Areas studied include macro theories of organizations, organizational design, change, motivation, politics and conflict resolution. Theories and research are applied to healthcare organization cases, with a major focus on leadership.

BSHS - 402. Statistics for Quality Management (3)

Introduces probability theory, measures of central tendency, hypothesis testing, and descriptive statistics. Applies these to quality management/improvement, including Pareto charts, frequency distributions, run charts, control charts and standard deviations.

BSHS - 403. Epidemiology and Evidence-based Practice (3)

Introduces principles of epidemiology including disease transmission, measures of mortality and morbidity, case control studies and other research designs, as well as clinical decision making theories and forms of evidence-based practice, focusing on carrying out literature reviews and critical appraisals.

BSHS - 404. Cultural Perspectives in Healthcare (3)

Cultural relativity and ethnocentrism are discussed, before learning about the cultural variation in health beliefs and seeking out and utilizing healthcare services, as well as the problems in communication with persons with limited English-speaking ability. Application will also extend to healthcare organization worker diversity, with a discussion- emphasis toward the largest ethnic groups in our geographic area.

BSHS - 405. Instructional Systems Design (3)

Applies learning theories and models to patient and staff education; includes program planning and evaluation; legal, regulatory and policy issues related to education, as well as instructional design strategies and resources. Students design and possibly carry out an educational program for a specific population of patients of staff members.

BSHS - 406. Financial Management (3)

Introduces economic and financial concepts focusing on healthcare and including healthcare economic principles, the information problem, cost-benefit analysis, budgeting, cash flow, balance sheets; then applies these to developing a budget for a grant application or business plan.

BSHS - 407. Human Resources Management (3)

Discusses the human resources functions in organizations including recruitment, staffing, selection, compensation, collective bargaining, evaluation, training, regulation, management development and planning. Theory and research are introduced and applied to healthcare organizations.

BSHS - 408. Healthcare Law (3)

Introduces the legal system, including legal reasoning, contracts, administrative and case law, torts, liability and other legal concepts. Discusses the impacts of our legal system on various types of healthcare provider organizations.

BSHS - 409. Healthcare Informatics (3)

Understands the vocabulary for medical/administrative technology, as well as how advances in computing, telecommunications and medical informatics software are being applied in healthcare settings. Focuses on the issues and benefits from the electronic medical record, digital imaging file transmission, computer order entry and legal issues concerning these and HIPAA, for patient, privacy protection.

BSHS - 410. Field Project (3)

Enables the student to identify a topic of interest in their occupation or area of interest, and under faculty supervision, conduct research, complete on-site work, and develop a report of the findings and personal experiences. Students are encouraged to study problems/issues in their own organizations. Service learning is a course requirement and may be planned and carried out earlier in the program, or in the Field project course. Reflection paper on service learning will be completed and discussed in this course.