An overview of statute and regulation as they apply to the health care field. Topics include an overview of the American legal system, licensure of institutions, licensure and discipline of practitioners, physician-patient relationship, reproductive issues, the right to die, organ donations, medical records, legal liability, malpractice and labor law. An introduction to quality assurance in health care. A review of the methodology of planning effectively for health care services. The use of data systems, forecasting, and identifying and analyzing problems are explored, along with the process of strategic planning, setting priorities, developing projects and allocating resources.
Students prepare actual applications for new programs to regulatory agencies.
As the use of alternative and complementary medical treatments grows rapidly among the public and is increasingly found among the therapeutic services offered in conventional medical settings, it is important that the professional health systems administrator and also the lay consumer of medical services have a basic understanding of these alternate treatments and treatment systems. This course will not teach the application of particular techniques or therapies. This course is a descriptive and analytic survey and comparison of different approaches to health and healing, the research bearing their effectiveness and to what extent, clinically and administratively, they can be integrated into conventional medical practice and settings. This course is a descriptive and analytic survey of complementary medicine therapies that involve principles of individual energetic manipulation or cognitive therapies. The course will focus on therapies that are most likely to be integrated into western medical care or have the highest utilization rates among consumers.