This non-credit orientation is a foundation-building experience that introduces and refreshes the skills necessary for success in your Graduate Certificate Program. You'll learn how to navigate ProQuest, Ashworth College's online library, and review the distinguishing characteristics of academic journals and other publications. Internet research skills are polished enabling you to identify credible and unbiased Web sites for your research. Emphasis is placed on submission requirements, project structures, and writing formats used throughout your coursework, and APA writing style. The final portion of this course provides you the opportunity to research and explore the various career fields in the world of Health Care Administration.
Credit Hours: non-credit

This course presents the concepts and principles of public health practices within the health care system. It begins by exploring broad principles and then shifts focus to substantive topics and issues within the public health field, including the development of public health practices, the determinants of health status, legal aspects, and the public health information systems. Special attention is given to the tools needed to effectively manage a typical health department and the role of the public health department in a variety of environments.
Credit Hours: 3

This course is a comprehensive introduction to current marketing theories and practices within the health care system. Health care industry applications are featured with highlighted examples from some of the most successful and noteworthy marketing experts at performing this complex function, which is part art, part science, and always somewhat dependent upon a combination of knowledge and wisdom that is nearly impossible to codify or quantify.
Credit Hours: 3

This course is an overview of the various functions of a human resource management department, including staffing, recruitment, benefits, compensation, employee relations, and more. Each area is examined with a focus on current trends and the role of HR as an integral part of the administrative team in health care organizations. The movement of the human resource management function to a strategic level is also discussed. Special emphasis is given to these functions with respect to the dynamics of the health care industry.
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides a broad overview of the health service delivery system as viewed by the social scientist. It examines the rich contribution that medical sociological research has made to our understanding of changing professional roles, health care institutional values, and the socio-cultural influences that affect medical treatment of patients. The course introduces the student to socio-medical concepts such as the sick role, socio-medical stress, illness behavior, social control of medical power, and life-style influences in examining the social factors that affect health and the treatment of disease.
Credit Hours: 3

Information Management examines the fundamentals of health information management, including the functions of obtaining, managing, and utilizing data for computer-based systems. This course provides the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to implement, facilitate, and coordinate information management activities.
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides the basic concepts of Managed Health Care. It is formulated not only for the experienced health care professional who has not worked in managed care, but also for the individual just entering the health care profession. Students are introduced to how managed care has evolved, with a broad look at many of its component parts. The course also examines managed care regulation and offers some predictions for its future.
Credit Hours: 3

This course examines issues surrounding the security and protection of health care environments. The student will be exposed to the uses and disclosures of identifiable health information, as permitted by security and privacy issues, regulations, legislations, and accreditation standards in the health care environment. The basis for confidentiality in health care systems will be introduced to provide an assessment of physical security requirements, as well as security of databases, networks and systems design.
Credit Hours: 3

This course examines the application of economics, finance, and accounting principles to health care organizations. The initial focus of the course involves a discussion of economics, which provides the health care professional with the tools to understand both the behaviors of the major participants in the health care system in the United States and the evolution of the managed care system. Managerial and financial accounting are then described, with a particular emphasis on the budgeting process and financial reporting, followed by a review of ratio analysis. The course concludes with a series of topics of special interest to the health care professional, including grant writing, business plan development, and international health care economics.
Credit Hours: 3