Operational Decision Making for Healthcare Managers

PREREQUISITE:  None

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The following represents the course competencies for this class.  Competencies are equivalent for all lecture and distance learning courses. Following each competency is the assignment used to gain mastery of this area of study.

This course will provide practical applications for managing healthcare operations, including a focus on decision-making and operational tools. It is designed to provide current and future healthcare leaders with an overall understanding of operations management in healthcare and strategies to address competing priorities. Students will be immersed in realistic examples of operations management scenarios culminating in a final project that synthesizes course content for deeper insight and enrichment. Topics include healthcare delivery, project management, change management, and the management of quality and finances.

AQUIRED SKILLS:

• Data Analysis
• Process Improvement
• Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking

UPON COMPLETION OF THE COURSE, THE STUDENT WILL BE COMPETENT IN:

• Defining operations management and discussing its purpose and importance in healthcare organizations.
• Synthesizing and applying operational management principles to various healthcare settings.
• Identifying agents and issues affecting decision-making in healthcare.
• Differentiating between the functional strategies for operations, finance, marketing, human resources, and information technology.
• Interpreting and applying data analysis in healthcare decision-making.
• Interpreting and applying data using forecasting and decision-making tools.
• Explaining the role of project management in healthcare operations.
• Examining and evaluating the function and importance of quality in healthcare.
• Evaluating current healthcare delivery challenges.
• Identifying principles of the Lean Six Sigma managerial approach.
• Identifying and evaluating process modeling tools and techniques.
• Differentiating implications to cost related to productivity, supply chain, inventory, and materials management.
• Examining and evaluating the function and importance of Information Technology (IT) in healthcare.
• Differentiating the principles of strategic, process, and resource flexibility related to change management.
• Demonstrating how a student may leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and interpret data in the healthcare organizational environment.