Courses

Master in Health Care Management

Summer 1

HCM 701 Organizational Behavior
Ms. Laurie Pascal
2.5 credits
This course explores the challenges and rewards of managing and leading in complex health care systems, with a focus on enhancing the leadership, motivational, political and organizational change skills and capabilities needed to be effective. Students will apply their new learning to case analyses and personal work situations, culminating in the development of a change initiative proposal for their home institutions.

The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health designates this educational activity for a maximum of 27.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

HCM 712 Transitioning to Physician Leadership
Dr. Ronald Goodspeed and Dr. Elizabeth Johnson
2.5 credits

This course focuses on the unique nature of physician leadership and the leadership and management methods and skills that are most practical and relevant to becoming a successful physician leader. Emphasis is placed on the evolution/transition from physician to becoming a physician leader. Critical leadership skills are identified and defined. The practical application of leadership skills is examined. Effective execution of leadership skills is illustrated and emphasized. Methods of overcoming typical obstacles are discussed. Cases, mini-cases, articles, and discussions provide participants with insight into real-world examples of roles, challenges, successes and mistakes of those in leadership positions. A framework for leadership is introduced and successive sessions take selected elements of the framework for further study. Topics include: characteristics and skills of great leadership; current challenges, professionally and personally; operational challenges and opportunities; time management; leading from anywhere in the organization; an introduction to health care organization governance; the physician’s role in health care organization governance; coaching and developing others, working with difficult people; influencing and persuading others; personal development; network development; and career management.

HCM 732 Operations Management in Service Delivery Organizations
Dr. Joe Pliskin
2.5 credits
Operations management is concerned with evaluating the performance of operating units, understanding why they perform as they do, designing new or improved operating procedures and systems for competitive advantage, making short-run and long-run decisions that affect operations, and managing the work force. To understand the role of operations in any organization, a manager must understand process analysis, capacity analysis, types of processes, productivity analysis, development and use of quality standards, and the role of operating strategy in corporate strategy. The course will also present the focused management approach which can help an organization achieve much more with existing resources.

The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health designates this educational activity for a maximum of 27.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Academic Year 1

HCM 702 Marketing
Ms. Linda MacCracken
2.5 credits

This course is designed to introduce students to marketing applications for healthcare organizations. Using selected readings and case studies of healthcare and non healthcare marketing topics, students will learn to assess and develop strategies and tactics to keep and get customers. The course develops a basic knowledge of marketing frameworks, including market intelligence, value propositions, and product/service, price, location and promotion elements. Healthcare marketing topics include applications to customer channels, branding, and innovation. The class work includes cases, course discussion and a group project.

The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health designates this educational activity for a maximum of 27.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

HCM 708 Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health
Dr. Monica Wang
2.5 credits
The aim of this course is to provide students with a foundation in the core concepts of the social and behavioral determinants of health. This course analyzes major social variables that affect population patterns in health, including socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, neighborhoods and the built environment, job stress, and social connections. Through a combination of online and in-class seminars, students will examine the role of various community, environmental and policy interventions in promoting health and health equity. In-class seminars will integrate empirical evidence with case-based methodology to discuss innovative models for advancing population health management.

HCM 709 Communication Skills for Managers
Mr. Jack Rossin
1.25 credits
Health care executives are increasingly called upon to communicate with a wide range of internal and external groups. This course will focus on the competencies necessary to deliver successfully presentations in a variety of situations that involve subordinates, superiors, with the board, peers, and external constituencies like the media. Students will learn to analyze challenging communication situations, prepare for contingencies, think on their feet, answer difficult questions and develop poise and confidence under pressure.

The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health designates this educational activity for a maximum of 22 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

HCM 719 Financial Transactions and Analysis
Dr. Sam Levitt
2.5 credits

This intensive course introduces concepts of financial accounting to the non-accountant user of financial information. Basic accounting transactions, statement preparation and concepts of accrual versus cash accounting are presented in the first half of the course. The remainder of the course focuses on financial analysis of a variety of health care organizations.

HCM 720 Cost Accounting and Control Systems
Mr. Richard Siegrist
2.5 credits
This course is designed to introduce students to cost accounting and management control concepts and uses for health service organizations. The first part of the course develops a basic knowledge of cost accounting, including full and differential costing techniques. The remainder of the course focuses on management control structure and process and addresses topics such as responsibility accounting, budgeting, reporting and variance analysis.

HCM 778 Skills & Methods of Health Care Negotiation & Conflict Resolution
Dr. Linda Kaboolian
2.5 credits
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of negotiation and conflict resolution. Particular emphasis is placed on integrating analytic skills, negotiation techniques and conflict resolution methods into the practice of health care management. Students are also introduced to the concepts and practice of the five dimensions of meta-leadership, a strategy to build connectivity of strategy and action amongst different departments and organizations in a complex health system. A portion of the class is devoted to simulation exercise in which general concepts and methods are demonstrated and practiced. These exercises model disputes typical of health care settings and health care management problems. The debriefings that follow each exercise offer individual feedback, as well as the opportunity to examine applied issues of organizational communication, system design and conflict. By the end of the course, students will have knowledge of the overt and covert causes of conflict, concepts for analyzing disputes and a variety of methods useful for preventing, resolving and when necessary, initiating a conflict.

Summer 2

HCM 704 Managing Information in Health Care
Ms. Deborah DiSanzo
2.5 credits
This course will expose students to the concepts and knowledge involved in making strategic use of information technology (IT) in health care organizations. It will clarify how to establish IT linkages to business, planning, and governance. In addition it will introduce students to technology management through the analysis of the lifecycle of IT, IT architecture, systems integration, and standards. The course focuses on key health care implications and the impact of IT upon quality, cost, and operations.

HCM 711 Quality Improvement and Quantitative Methods
Dr. Evan Benjamin, Dr. Catherine Kreatsoulas, Dr. Josko Silobrcic
2.5 credits
Summer 2 and Academic Year 2

The quality improvement and quantitative methods course is designed for the physician executive or manager whose responsibilities include either oversight or direct involvement in quality management and improvement in a health delivery or health financing organization. Using readings, case studies, lectures and extensive classroom discussions, students will learn both the conceptual, practical and analytical aspects of improving health care quality. Students will use principles of high reliability, quality improvement tools and analytical thinking to plan and execute a quality improvement project. Students will master a variety of data techniques that can be used in quality improvement interventions and process analysis. Assignments are designed to provide an opportunity to practice using these new skills.

HCM 722 Financial Management of Health Care Organizations
Mr. Carl Byers
2.5 credits
Topics include financial management of working capital and investment decision models, long term capital structure and mergers and acquisitions of health care organizations. Materials will primarily involve cases about a range of health care organizations (hospitals, insurers/ managed care plans, neighborhood health centers, physician groups, home health agencies, etc.).

Academic Year 2

HCM 707 Health Care Management Practicum
Dr. Linda Cyr, Dr. Henry Bernstein, Dr. Don Michaels
5 credits
Field Project throughout Academic Year 2

The Practicum provides students with an opportunity to integrate and apply the in-depth knowledge and leadership skills gained throughout the MHCM program by completing a comprehensive, independent project of their own choosing. Students will propose a project idea, develop a project plan, and build a case required to win approval and implement the idea. Many students will also make major strides in implementing the project in their organizations.

HCM 731 Competitive Strategy
Dr. Mariam Krikorian Atkinson, Dr. Laurie Sprung
2.5 credits
This course focuses on the conceptual framework needed to plan for the long-term viability of health care organizations. Using selected readings and case studies of both health care and non-health care organizations, students will learn to appreciate the concepts of competitive strategy and competitive advantage primarily through practice in analysis. The objective is to provide students with the conceptual tools and the practical skills to enable them to formulate, execute, and evaluate organizational strategy.

The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health designates this educational activity for a maximum of 25.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

HCM 755 Provider Payment Systems and Policy
Dr. Jeffrey Levin-Scherz, Ms. Carolyn S. Langer
2.5 credits

This course is taught in two parts; the course focuses on the policy, operations and finance of provider payment, as well as the legal and contractual elements of provider payment.

Policy, operations and finance:
The course will evaluate multiple dimensions of health care cost and payment, with an emphasis on how payment systems influence provider organization, behavior and performance. The focus of this course is the US health care system, although class members will do an exercise involving provider payment across multiple countries. Participants will review sources and uses of health care dollars, and examine how these have changed in recent years as well as further changes that are likely as a result of the Affordable Care Act and associated regulations. We will examine various stakeholder points of view on health care finance- and assess how changes in finance methods lead to changes in health care delivery and can lead to different experiences and outcomes for both providers and patients.

Legal and regulatory:
The legal and regulatory sessions will to cover the key legal issues with which the health care executive needs to be familiar. The goal is to provide some sensitivity to the basic structure of the law, not to train the class as amateur lawyers. If successful, the students will be in a position to ask their legal team reasonable questions, relating to the underlying rationality of the law.

HCM 758 Field Project in Quality Improvement
Dr. Josko Silobrcic
2.5 credits

This course will provide physician executives with pragmatic, applied, real-world insights into quality improvement (QI) in healthcare organizations, based on the application of proven strategic and tactical frameworks, methodologies and tools to their own quality-related field projects, performed during the 2nd academic year of the MHCM program. Throughout their efforts, from project conception, design and planning, to measurement, implementation, analysis and follow-up actions, the students are mentored and guided (individually and in small groups) by expert course faculty. The course follows and closely complements the HCM 711 (Quality Improvement and Quantitative Methods in Quality Management) summer/fall course, which provides the conceptual and methodological bases, analytic tools and practices for the field project. At the end of this course, students will be better prepared for and substantially proficient in their own roles in quality improvement and management, leading/supporting their organizations’ efforts in those areas using sound, science-based and systematic, methodical and analytic approaches and processes.

HCM 777 Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Health Care
Mr. Richard Siegrist
1.25 Credits

This course is designed to expose students to the theory and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship in health care settings, both domestically and abroad. The first half of the sessions focus on various aspects of starting and growing a new health care business, whether a for-profit or non-profit venture. The second half of the sessions focus on fostering innovation and intrapreneurship in established organizations such as non-profit, for-profit or governmental organizations engaged in health care related activities.

HCM 782 Innovative Problem Solving and Design Thinking
Dr. Linda Cyr
2.5 credits

The capacity to innovate is critical in today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment. Design thinking is a disciplined approach to innovation that has been adopted by leading healthcare organizations (e.g. Mayo Clinic, Kaiser, IBM Watson Health) and government agencies (e.g. CDC, HHS). In constrast to a traditional approach to problem solving that focuses on deciding among known solutions, an innovative approach seeks the best solution possible given available resources, time, and team competencies. Innovative problem solving maximizes learning to reduce uncertainty by focusing on generation of new alternatives, experimentation, and exploration of multiple solutions. This course includes a mix of individual and group exercises in class as well as a series of assignments that enable students to effectively use innovation tools, acquire skills, and adopt mindsets that complement the analytical approaches developed in other courses.