Curriculum

Doctoral Program courses are distributed across four areas:

• foundations of health services organization and research (9 credit hours);
• health services organization theory core (12 credit hours);
• health services research methods (18 credit hours); and
• an area of specialization (9 credit hours).

In addition, 9 dissertation credit hours are required. The course work is sequenced so that it can be completed in two years of full-time study. Required courses are listed below. Other courses, independent studies, special topics, and practicum courses are available as electives in the Department of Health Administration as well as in other VCU departments.

Foundation of Health Services Organization and Research - 9 credit hours

(Each course is a three hour semester course, three credit hours, unless otherwise noted.)

Health Care Organization and Services (HADM 602) - Examines the structure and functions of the American health care industry, the concepts and processes of health and illness, the institutional and individual providers of health services and related concepts.

Health Economics (HADM 624) - Develops an understanding of (1) economics as a managerial tool in making choices or decisions that will provide for an optimum allocation of limited health care resources, and (2) economics as a way of thinking about and approaching issues of public policy in financing and organizing health and medical services. Individual research on crucial or controversial issues in the health field.

Health Care Financing and Delivery Systems (HADM 702) - Prerequisites: HADM 701, 704, 705, 760, 761, and 763. Critical review and evaluation of major innovations in organization, delivery, and financing of health care services. Selected topics may include cost function analysis of alternative health care delivery systems, consideration of alternative public financing of health care, and risk assessment and evaluation of various insurance coverages.

Health Services Organization Theory - 12 credit hours

Organizational Behavior (MGMT 641) - Prerequisite: MGMT 640 or equivalent, or permission of instructor. An advance course in management, involving theories and models aimed at developing the managerial competencies needed to analyze, understand, predict, and guide individual, group, and organizational behavior.

Foundations of Health Organization Theory (HADM 704) - Examines the roots of foundational theories and concepts in organization theory and their application to research on health care organizations and systems. Emphasizes the environment and structure of health care organizations and systems.

Advanced Health Organization Theory (HADM 705) - Prerequisites: HADM 704 or permission of instructor. Covers contemporary perspectives in health organization theory in depth, with emphasis on their research application in health care organizations. Critically assesses current examples of research on health care organizations using these perspectives.

Health Organizational Design and Assessment (HADM 701) - Prerequisite: MGMT 641, HADM 704 and HADM 705 or permission from instructor. Analysis of medical care organizations at both micro and macro levels. Critical review of empirical research in organizational analysis and design. Identifies measurement issues related to the quality of care and to the formulation of evaluative research on health services programs.

Health Services Research Methods - 18 credit hours

Health Systems Analysis and Evaluation (HADM 609) - Prerequisite: upper division course in statistics. Introduction to principles and methods employed in evaluation research and program evaluation as these relate to health services. Focus is on conceptualization, design, and operational procedures used in program evaluation.

Design and Analysis of Psychological Research (PSYC 620) - Semester course and 2 laboratory hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: Undergraduate course in basic statistics or permission of the instructor. An introduction to research design in psychology (e.g. logic behind various research designs, typical research problems). Review of principles of hypothesis testing, general linear model, analysis of variance including factorial designs with special emphasis on prior and post hoc comparisons, repeated-measures designs and mixed designs.

Statistics in Psychological Research (PSYC 621) - Semester course. 4 credits. Prerequisite: PSYC620. Extensive coverage of multiple regression/correlation analysis with applications in psychology. Survey of applications of multivariate statistical analyses in psychology.

Quantitative Analysis of Health Care Data (HADM 760) - Prerequisites: PSYC 620 and 621 or permission of instructor. Research course emphasizing computer application and statistical analyses of health care data generated from secondary sources, including data envelopment analysis.

Health Services Research Methods I (HADM 761) - Prerequisites: upper division course in statistics. Research as a systematic method for examining questions derived from related theory and/or health service practice. Major focus in on the logic of casual inference, including the formulation of testable hypotheses relating to health services organizations and management, the design of methods and measures to facilitate study, and the concepts, principles, and methods of epidemiology.

Health Services Research Methods II (HADM 762) - Prerequisites: HADM 761, PSYC 620, and PSYC 621 or equivalent. Application of multivariate statistical analysis and evaluation research methods to health services research. Emphasis on advanced statistical methods (e.g., LISREL, Event History Analysis) and design to analyze panel data in the health field.

Health Program Evaluation (HADM 763) - Prerequisites: HADM 760, 761 or permission of instructor. Analysis of current evaluation research on personal health services and programs in a variety of social and health contexts. Emphasis is placed on the measurement of health-care outcomes and the design of experimental and quasi-experimental studies on treatment effectiveness.

Area of Specialization - 9 credit hours

With faculty advisor's assistance, students choose three elective courses that comprise an area of specialization. Generally, these courses are drawn from other programs at VCU and from independent study with department faculty. Students often choose independent study under the direction of faculty mentors in their expertise areas such as long-term care, managed care, productivity, strategy or international health.

Comprehensive Examinations

Students take two written comprehensive examinations over the coursework: (1) health services organization theory and (2) health services research methods.

Dissertation - 9 credit hours

Upon successful completion of the four major study areas, students devote an additional 9 credit hours to preparing a dissertation. The Doctor of Philosophy degree is awarded after the minimum 57 credit hours of course work are completed, comprehensive exams are passed, and the dissertation is written and defended orally.

Oral Defense of Dissertation Proposal

Students must orally defend their proposal before their dissertation committee.

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