Nursing Home Administration (Courses)

This is an overview course that will provide an in-depth investigation of healthcare accounting and finance. This course is intended to give those who seek to manage health care organizations the accounting and financial management foundation they need to assure that their organizations produce information that will support their responsibility to make necessary and sound decisions. The course will focus on the operations of health care organizations such as not for profit and for profit hospitals, physician groups and other healthcare groups including how these organizations use accounting and financial systems for decision making. In this course, we will examine the healthcare organization as a management function and the basic principles of accounting followed by financial statement analyses, cost accounting, cost shifting, budgeting, managing accounts receivable, materials management and healthcare economics. We will examine these topics and their use in planning, control, evaluation and "real life" work examples. The course covers all the essential functions in health care accounting and financial operations that would be experienced throughout the healthcare industry, except for the insurance business and those entities which have special and additional requirements for being for-profit. During the course the participants will carefully construct what the accounting and finance department is expected to accomplish. The course objectives are reinforced through the lecture notes and supplemental readings, significant group discussions, homework problem sets, a case study, topic presentation, and a final paper and presentation.

This course presents a review of the ethical and legal dilemmas faced by health care providers and administrators. The values underlying the development of the health care system in the United States are explored in depth. The formation of governmental policy, state and federal, is reviewed. Health policy's impact on and regulation of health care delivery in the United States is examined. Application of ethical decision-making is explored.

This course reviews the current state of human resource management and labor relations in the health care system. The course examines human resource planning, recruiting, retention, job analysis/descriptions, performance appraisal, and orientation. Current employment and labor law is examined for its impact on health care organizations and employees. Students will explore the status of organized labor and health administrator roles/responsibilities when interacting with non-unionized or unionized units.

This is a capstone course that focuses on the integration of knowledge gained in course work covering gerontology, budgeting, finance, human resources, policy, law and ethics as well as new topics in resident care, environment management and regulation.

Prerequisites: Course work in gerontology, finance, human resources, policy and law, or permission of program director

This course is provides an overview of the aging process and problems associated with normal growth and development, with an emphasis on the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs that meet the needs of older adults. The course will also address behavioral health issues associated with aging, including psycho-social impact of cultural and cohort influences. A discussion of prevention, diagnosis, assessment, and intervention as well as an examination of legislation affecting older adults will be reviewed. In addition, an understanding the death and dying process as a normal part of the life cycle and an examination of the specific care needed to care for the dying patient and (their) family as they complete the last stage of growth and development will also be considered.