Minutes of the Education Policy Committee
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Present:
Kris Eitrheim
Pam Long
Nathan Schlueter
Barb Wiese
Randy Richards
Bonnie Leonhardt
Richard Legg
Nate Mundy
Paul Koch
Lori Rodrigues-Fisher
Terry Schlabach
Guests:
Richard Dienesch
Mike Opar
Frank Miller
Frank Borst
Organizational Business:
1)
Motion to
approve minutes
a) Richards
b) Mundy
c) Approved
2)
Revision of
requirements of MBA in Health Care (Richard Dienesch)
a) Proposals (see Appendix I)
b) Motion to approve
i)
Leonhardt
ii)
Long
iii)
Approved
3)
General
education requirements for Industrial Engineering (Mike Opar)
a) Proposals (see Appendix II)
b) Motion to Approve
i)
Leonhardt
ii)
Richards
iii)
Approved
4)
Cross reference
MOL 529 Conflict Resolution as MBA 764 and include MBA course as alternative
for Human Resources Management concentration/certification (Bonnie Leonhardt)
a) Motion to approve
i)
Richards
ii)
Long
iii)
Approved
5)
A review of
changes in the assessment process (Paul Koch)
a) Proposals (see Appendix III)
b) Motion to approve
i)
Wiese
ii)
Eitrheim
iii)
Approved
c) Motion to vote by e-mail on Political Science
proposal on October 29th
i)
Richards
ii)
Long
iii)
Approved
d) Motion to adjourn
i)
Eitrheim
ii)
Mundy
iii)
Approved
Submitted by Nathan
Schlueter
Tentative agenda for Nov. 15
Extension of program review for Physics Department
Approval of new research course in Nursing
Introduction: The MBA in Health Care has been in place for three years. During that time, many students have expressed interest in the program, but the enrollments, while good, have not met our projections. Discussion with health care professionals and potential students have led us to conclude that the current program is too general in nature and does not provide sufficient emphasis on health care. Thus, we are proposing the following revisions to sharpen the academic focus of the degree and to respond more effectively to the needs of the professional community that we serve.
Leveling
Courses (To Cover The Fundamental Business Disciplines)
MBA 506 Financial Accounting
MBA 507 Managerial Accounting
MBAH 527 Economic Analysis In Health Care Management
Required
Courses
MBA 505 Statistical Methods for Decision Making
MBA 621 Organizational Theory, Behavior and Communication
MBA 626 Managerial Economics
MBA 635 Legal & Social Environment of Business
MBA 670 Operations Management
MBA 675 Financial Management
MBA 680 Marketing Management
MBA 685 Human Resources Management
MBA 690 Leadership Through People Skills
MBAH 756 Information Systems Management in Health Care
MBAH 799 Professional Ethics in Health Care Management
MBA 800 Capstone Seminar: Policy Formation & Implementation
Career Needs (Elective) Courses (Choose Four)
MBAH 636 Legal Issues in Health Care
MBAH 681 Strategic Marketing in Health Care
MBAH 686 Health Care Professional Management Issues
MBAH 706 Quality Management in Health Care
MBA 715 Executive Management Seminar: Topics in Health Care
MBAH 758 Health Care Integrated Delivery Systems Management
MBAH 805 Managed Care & Health Care Delivery Issues
Leveling
Courses (To Cover The Fundamental Business Disciplines)
MBA 506 Financial Accounting
MBA 507 Managerial Accounting
MBAH 527 Economic Analysis in Health Care
Required
Courses
MBA 505 Statistical Methods For Decision Making
MBA 621 Organizational Theory, Behavior and Communication
MBA 626 Managerial Economics
MBAH 636 Legal Issues in Health Care
MBA 670 Operations Management
MBA 675 Financial Management
MBAH 681 Strategic Marketing in Health Care
*MHCA 670 Human Behavior in Health Care
MBA 690 Leadership Through People Skills
MBAH 756 Information Systems in Health Care
MBAH 799 Professional Ethics in Health Care Management
*MHCA 810 Capstone Seminar in Health Care Management
* Need to change MHCA 670 to MBAH 6_ _ and MHCA 810 to MBAH
810
Career Needs
(Elective) Course (Choose one)
MBAH 686 Health Care Professional Management Issues
MBAH 706 Quality Management in Health Care
MBA 715 Executive Management Seminar: Topics in Health Care
MBAH 758 Health Care Integrated Delivery Systems Management
MBAH 805 Managed Care and Health Care Delivery Issues
Summary of Changes in Requirements: Four currently required courses have been replaced my more health care focused courses in the proposed curriculum. These more focused courses were in the curriculum as Career Needs courses (Electives) of the current curriculum or in the previously existing Master in Health Care Administration program. Thus no new courses need to be approved. Specifically: 1) MBA 635 Legal & Social Environment of Business is replaced by MBAH 636 Legal Issues in Health Care, 2) MBA 680 Marketing Management is replaced by MBAH 681 Strategic Marketing in Health Care 3)MBA 685 Human Resources Management is replaced by MHCA 670 Human Behavior in Health Care (to be re-numbered as MBAH 6__), and 4) MBA 800 Capstone Seminar: Policy Formation & Implementation is replaced by MHCA 810 Capstone Seminar in Health Care Management (to be renamed MBAH 810). In addition, since there are now four more health care focused courses in the requirements, the number of Career Needs courses (Electives) can now be reduced from four to one, allowing the total hours required by the program to be reduced by nine credit hours, from 57 to 48.
Course Content. The content of the proposed new courses represents a more focused coverage of the academic and professional content needed by the field, it also includes the necessary Common Professional Components (CPCs) required by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).
Accreditation. There are two important considerations regarding the MBA-HC, which will be met under this revised 48 hour version. First, according to ACBSP standards, we are required to cover 11 business areas (the CPCs). They are comprised of the following topics: Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Management, Law, Economics, Ethics, Global, Information Systems, Statistics and Policy. The revised MBA-HC curriculum easily covers the requisite number of hours per subject area. The second consideration for accreditation is the requirement that one-half of the credit hours in a specialized Master’s degree such as the MBA in Health Care must be in the area of specialization. This requirement is also met: eight MBA courses and eight MBA in Health Care courses.
Total Hours to Complete the Program Many students interested in health care have opted to take, or switch to, the MBA Generalist Program in order to reduce the hour requirement, time frame, and cost. Because of its clearer professional focus, the revised MBA-HC curriculum could be reduced from 57 to 48 semester hours without losing rigor or important content.
External Review of the Proposed Changes. Two key external constituents were consulted in determining the changes proposed in this document.
ACBSP. The revised MBA-HC curriculum was discussed with an evaluator from ACBSP to confirm the program’s coverage of the two requirements mentioned above. He agreed that the curriculum does just that.
Local Professional Review of the proposed changes. Two actions were taken to insure that the new program has support and acceptance in the local health care profession. Dr. Karl Hickerson, Ph.D., then Vice-President for Customer Service for John Deere Health Care, Inc. (now on our faculty) and Dr. Frank Miller, M.D., a long time physician in the Quad Cities and Director of the MBA-HC Program were actively involved with Dr. Frank Borst, Director of MBA Academic Services, in designing the changes outlined in this document. In addition, drafts of the new program were sent to the Chief Executive Officers of the two major health care providers in the area, Mr. Leo Bressanelli of Genesis Health Care and Mr. Robert Lundin of Trinity Health. Both circulated the information among their top administrators and provided the COB with feedback which was incorporated into this document. Both organizations also endorsed the proposed requirements.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
MBA 506 Financial Accounting
Discussion of the generally accepted accounting principles as they relate to
recording of financial transactions and the preparation, use and analysis of
financial statements. Topics include an overview of the accounting cycle,
income measurement, financial reporting, cash flow statement, and financial
statement analysis.
MBA 507 Managerial Accounting
Discussion of methods for analyzing and reporting accounting information for
planning, controlling, and decision making. Topics include product costing,
budgets, performance measurement, quality costs and international operations.
MBAH 527 Economic Analysis in Health Care Management
This course evaluates the macro and microeconomics of health care management
and the health care system including supply and demand characteristics,
financing, and the various concepts of revision. The health care system is driven
by different dynamics than the classical economic market place. The student
needs to understand the differences and similarities between manufacturing
economics, finance and that of the service community, so that they may be part
of basic decision-making in health care management. Case studies will be used
to help emphasize real world application.
MBA 505 Statistical Methods for Decision-Making
Basic statistical techniques for decision-making: frequency distribution,
descriptive measures, probability, sampling, estimation, tests of hypotheses,
regression and correlation analysis.
MBA 621 Organizational Theory, Behavior and Communication
Study of the organization (for profit and non-profit) as a complex system:
line and staff functions, administration/leadership styles, motivation and
group dynamics – and impact of each on the achievement of organization goals.
MBAH 636 Legal Issues in Health Care
This course acquaints the health care student with the internal and external
legal environment faced by a health care provider and its manager. This course
will look at malpractice, risk management, tort law and tort reform, OSHA
regulations, construction of organizational charters, bylaws, rules and regulations, legal constraints on organizational management, laws affecting
subsidiary corporations, internal and external legal environment for health care
provider, tax law, human resource laws and regulations in hiring/firing, and
benefit/retirement trust management.
MBA 670 Operations Management
Quantitative techniques and the systems approach applied to understanding and
improving the operations of both manufacturing and service organizations.
Techniques from quality, learning, forecasting, process design, scheduling,
waiting lines, inventory and MRP are utilized. Underlying principles such as
tradeoff analysis, Pareto, process control, and optimization of resource usage
are emphasized throughout. The objective is for the student to understand how
organizations actually achieve results and how to identify opportunities to
improve their operation.
MBA 675 Financial Management
Analysis of business financial management: sources and uses of funds, raising
funds from internal versus external sources, long-term versus short-term funding
decisions, the cost of capital, alternate uses of capital, using leverage, security
in borrowing/lending, dividends versus retained earnings, and use of the financial
market.
MBAH 681 Strategic Marketing in Health Care
This course builds upon the principles which were learned by the student in the
basic MBA Marketing Management course. Health care organizations and
integrated delivery systems (IDS) face challenges for marketing in the health
care field because of traditional and historical biases which relate to this industry.
The use of advertising and promotion has been taboo in the health care field,
particularly as relates to not for profit organizations and physicians in medical
practice.
IDS and managed care organizations have particular needs to promote
their services to the community. Because of the historical bias, the application
of traditional marketing methods may not be effective or desirable. Even so,
market research is essential for the analysis of community needs and long-term
strategic planning for all types of health care organizations. Uses case studies to
illustrate modern marketing research and techniques in the area of health care.
MHCA 670 Human Behavior in Health Care Organizations
The course will explore the various aspects of the psychology of motivation,
empowerment, training, performance appraisal, reward systems and superior/
subordinate relationships. An understanding of the psychology of group
dynamics will be developed. Also, the legal aspects of people management,
harassment, discipline, hiring/firing, and documentation techniques will be
explored. The student will learn the constraints on decision making with and
about employees, and how to overcome or protect him/herself from them. Some
time will be spent on unions and the grievance process. Also, corrective action
plan development for minorities and women will be discussed. The legal
considerations of advertising for employees and the regulations regarding such
advertising and interviewing will also be covered.
MBA 690 Leadership Through People Skills
Intensive five-day seminar (8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) with objective of creating
better business managerial results through the study of behaviors, leadership
styles, communication processes, and motivation. Course completion graded
on Pass/Fail basis.
MBAH 756 Information Systems Management in Health Care
An introduction into the various aspects of health care information date systems.
The course will look at the Management Information Systems (MIS) as a place
to store, retrieve, and compute financial, statistical, inventory, cost, human
resources, laboratory, staffing and regulatory date. The emphasis will be on what
MIS can and cannot do. Computer skills are not required to understand the basic
concepts of computerization of information and the generation of meaningful
reports. The health care manager must understand what systems cannot do as
well as what they can do before he/she can make informed decisions on purchase
or programming.. the course will be a walk-through of MIS concepts and
practices.
MBAH 799 Professional Ethics in Health Care Management
This course discusses current issues in the ethics of health care and their
relationship to health care delivery systems. It will cover various ethical
issues of health care restriction, cost containment, under or uninsured,
eldercare at the expense of early life care, termination of life support, living
wills/powers of attorney, organ donation, fetal genetic assessments for
congenital diseases that may affect adult life functioning, malpractice,
licensing and accreditation, and AIDS screening in health care personnel.
MHCA 810 Capstone Seminar in Health Care Management
A series of instructive case studies will be evaluated and discussed by the
students. Each case will have some issues from the prerequisite courses
that will require development by the student and a decision to be made by
the time of the student presentation. These presentations will be made by the
individual to the class, who will then act as a board of directors and question
the presenter on data development and conclusions. The presentation format
and rules will be discussed at the beginning of the course. The presentation
will be similar to a term paper and will require some preparation of date.
MBAH 686 Health Care Professional Management Issues
This course will be designed to address issues related to physicians and their
interrelationships with other physicians, health care administrators, therapists,
nurses and patients. To better understand physician incentives and motivations,
this course should include a historical analysis of physicians in medical practice,
political settings, economic incentives and structure of physician organizations.
Physicians have traditionally practiced as individuals and entrepreneurs. Usually
working as a small businessman, physicians have been highly successful and have enjoyed high income and status. However, organizational based physicians
are becoming more common. The course will look at medical staff structure and
functions, physicians in administrative positions, physicians as salaried employees, and physicians as leaders in health care organizations.
MBAH 706 Quality Management in Health Care
Quality of patient care has always been a primary concern in health care delivery.
Historically, quality has been judged by experts in the field. However, with the
introduction of computers and modern statistical analysis, quality evaluation
currently depends heavily on the collection and manipulation of data.
Improvement of quality is evolving into system analysis and total quality
management. Health care managers must be familiar with modern techniques of
quality improvement.
The distinction between quality as measured by the health professional
and quality as measured by industry will be analyzed. The course will draw on
information obtained in MBA 621, MBA 505, and MBA 756. Case studies and
real-life examples will be used.
MBAH 758 Health Care Integrated Delivery Systems Management
This course is intended to focus on the concept of Integrated Delivery Systems (IDS). The IDS has recently become significant in the strategic planning of health
care systems. IDS are totally integrated health care systems. IDS are totally
integrated health care systems both horizontally and vertically in the community. The focus on IDS is to provide the community with total management of health and health care services for the prevention, treatment, and management of disease
processes.
IDS represents comprehensive and complex interrelationships between many organizations in the community providing health services such as screening
procedures, preventive inoculation programs, home health services, long-term care facilities, acute care facilities and outpatient surgical treatment facilities to
name only a few.
MBAH 805 Managed Care and Health Care Delivery Issues
This course is intended to expand upon current managed care and health care
issues that will be important to the health care manager. This course will take a
seminar approach to learning with student participation in class discussion. Students will be required to select, research and present a contemporary topic in
managed care to the class as a final presentation for the course. Topics may also
include issues in health care insurance, benefits administration, information systems, politics or financing projects, as well as managed care.
In addition, a series of guests from Heritage National Health Plans and other managed care organizations will present lectures on the various aspects of
managed care in the region. Students will be encouraged to participate by asking
questions of the presenters. The remaining lecture topics will led by the instructor and will discuss in detail contemporary issues of the instructor’s or the
student’s selection.
MBA 715 Executive Management Seminar/Selected Topics
Specially selected courses are introduced into the program at appropriate times
to meet student needs.
APPENDIX II
The Industrial Engineering faculty has voted unanimously to accept the “Skills” component of the General Education curriculum without exception. The Industrial Engineering faculty has also voted unanimously to accept the “Content” component of the General Education curriculum without exception.
Requirements of the Industrial Engineering major include:
MATH 191 (a skill component)
CHEM 103 or 105 (a group IV course)
PHYS 251 (a group IV course)
PHIL 207 or 305 (Level 1, group I or Level 2)
These courses meet or exceed the requirements of General Education. We propose that Industrial Engineering will meet the general education requirements. Furthermore, it is our belief that students will be able to complete a theme (Ways of Knowing).
Analysis of our major indicates that some changes may be made, subject to Education policies approval, and will be submitted under a separate proposal.
APPENDIX III
The following is for consideration, revision, and possible inclusion in the next catalog under a separate heading. It is the recommendation of the Assessment Committee that this section be placed at or near the beginning of the academic information in the new catalog.
Currently, the assessment requirement is hidden as a bullet in the 2001/2003 catalog on p. 32 under the Writing Intensive Requirement.
“St. Ambrose University evaluates the achievement of its students with a variety of assessment instruments, and seniors are required to participate in this process as a graduation requirement.”
The primary purposes of assessment are to determine whether St. Ambrose University is currently meeting its goals and objectives for teaching and learning, and to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the future. At times, students will be asked to participate in the assessment process by completing specialized assessment activities. These assessment activities can be completed in a variety of settings (such as the classroom, at home, or at a testing center) as well as in a variety of ways (such as online, paper-and-pencil, in small or large groups) depending upon the activity. All students, regardless of class level or enrollment status, are asked to assist with this important process.