Curriculum Issues in Population Health Management Concentration Ver3

Curriculum Issues in Population Health Management Concentration Ver3

Curriculum Issues within the Population Health Management (PHM) Concentration

The mission of the Health Management and Systems Sciences (HMSS) Department is directly aligned with serving graduate healthcare management students at the University of Louisville with CAHME-accredited education that will enable graduates to successfully compete for jobs in healthcare organizations. Currently, our organizational and curriculum structure is inadequate to appropriately meet our mission. The following points outline internal weaknesses and potential resolutions.

We have identified the following weaknesses in our current curriculum structure:

(1)Lack of management focus of the core courses: The core courses, understandably, are focused on their core areas and not health administration. The problem is that PHM students find it difficult to relate these areas to their competencies as health administrators and the jobs they seek post-graduation. Some of the core course content may not be as relevant as content that is missing from the PHM curriculum.

(2)Relevance of the content of the core courses to healthcare managers: The second biostatics class contains topics that are relevant, but the software used and applications are not health administration focused. There are probably better ways to deliver this content to make it more meaningful to students seeking health management jobs.

(3)Missing content – strategic planning & marketing: There is too much content to deliver about strategic planning and healthcare marketing within one three-hour course. There needs to be an additional three hours dedicated to this content area.

(4)Missing content – quantitative methods for healthcare managers using appropriate software – Excel is the primary data analysis tool used within health administration. There are also other analytic packages used within health administration jobs that students should be exposed to.

(5)Missing content – managerial accounting: the areas of finance and accounting are very weak in our Program. At a minimum, accredited graduate health administration programs offer two courses (finance and then managerial accounting) with some offering much more.

(6)Missing content – operations management & management science: Our students need to know about scheduling, logistics, queuing theory, etc. This is currently not taught in our Program.

(7)Missing content – project management: much of what our graduates will be doing is project management in their jobs. We have no content in this area in the current curriculum.

(8)Missing content – quality and information systems: we are currently forced to combine both content areas into one course. Typically, these are taught as two courses.

(9)Problematic content – Public Health Integrated learning course: The way this course is currently structured, it will not satisfy CAHME requirements as an integrative experience for the students. Health administration students typically do simulations, organization-based projects, and other activities in this sort of capstone course.

(10)50 credit hour limit in MPH: Given the core course structure and 50 credit hour degree limit, we cannot deliver a quality education product within these constraints. We anticipate that CAHME will ask us serious questions about some of our content areas.

To address these issues, we have developed the following potential solutions:

Solution #1: Tweak MPH concentration – 50 to 56 credit hours

(1)Replace Biostats II with a new Health Management Quantitative Methods course.

(2)Add second Health Management Strategic Planning and Marketing course.

(3)Add managerial accounting course.

Pros of this approach:

(1)Will keep concentration within MPH.

(2)Will not require formal degree creation process through CPE.

Cons of this approach:

(1)Incremental enhancement does not fully address the fundamental internal problems of MPH concentration or external market opportunities lost in providing graduate healthcare management education.

(2)Employer and student feedback is that MPH, despite CAHME accreditation, is still confusing (MHA vs. MPH)

(3)Will greatly increase the credit hours compared to other concentrations

(4)Still have a chunk of content that may not be as relevant

(5)Missing an operations management specific course.

(6)Missing project management course.

(7)Still teaching one quality and information systems course.

(8)Integrated learning course remains unchanged.

(9)Can we go as high as 56 credit hours?

(10)New course development.

(11)Additional faculty FTE required (acquired through course re-distribution, adjuncts, new hires, etc.)

Solution #2: Create Standalone Master of Science in Population Health Management (MSPHM) degree – 50 (MPH) to 55 (MSPHM) credit hours

(1)Create standalone MSPHM degree and close the MPH PHM concentration.

(2)Replace core courses with more health administration focused content.

(3)Will need to submit LOI and then CPE application for new degree.

(4)Courses will be aligned across traditional MSPHM and executive MHA degrees. Executive MHA degree will emphasize different competencies within similar course structure.

Pros of this approach:

(1)All missing content will be included

(2)Will be able to more closely follow CAHME requirements as an independent degree.

(3)Degree name is more relevant to employers.

(4)Curriculum content is more relevant to employers.

(5)No credit hour cap.

Cons of this approach:

(1)New degree, so the pain associated with that.

(2)PHM concentration was unique, so losing that uniqueness (although that could also be a plus).

(3)Will need to make sure required CEPH Public Health content is covered in the curriculum. Either the competencies will need to be included in the courses, or they will need to take an additional course that will add more credit hours.

(4)New course development.

(5)Additional faculty FTE required (acquired through course re-distribution, adjuncts, new hires, etc.)