6/23/2011

Capstone Papers Examine Important Healthcare Issues

HLTH 890: Healthcare Strategic Management is the capstone course for the MHA Program.

It reflects the reality that healthcare leaders and managers must be able to continuously identify, evaluate and address the full range of important external and internal issues and opportunities facing their organizations. This is particularly true in this time of rapid and radical changes in the healthcare industry.

HLTH 890 helps students strengthen their skills to:

• Diagnose situations and identify key strategic and operational issues.
• Assess alternative strategies and actions to address the issues.
• Prescribe what strategies and actions have the potential to best address the issues.
• Implement chosen strategies and actions.

For the final project in HLTH 890, each student must conduct an in-depth Research Project on a healthcare organization or component of one or on a healthcare strategy-related issue and/or challenge, or to develop a Strategic Plan for a healthcare organization or component of one. Each Research Project is presented in a final report of approximately 25 pages, the same length as each Strategic Plan.

This spring, the students wrote research papers on:

• The Changing Healthcare Environment and Accountable Care Organizations
• Accountable Care Organizations: The Key to Transforming Healthcare
• Electronic Health Records and Their Implementation
• Reducing Unnecessary Medical Care Cost Using a Multidisciplinary Approach
• Improving Patient Quality and Safety Through Strategic Initiatives at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Boston, and Newton-Wellesley Hospital
• A Strategic Approach to Quality and Safety at Tufts Medical Center
• Chronic Disease Management Systems: A Strategic and Operational Analysis of How to Implement an Effective
• Chronic Disease Management Service Line

The strategic plans are on:

• Successful Implementation of Quality and Performance Improvement Plans: Critical Areas to Address in Strategic Planning
• Boston Pediatric Neurosurgical Foundation (BPNF)
• Medical School Affiliation Strategy in the Boston Area
• The field of renal medicine and the delivery of hemodialysis services at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

 
Talia Goldsmith and Jesse DeHond

“All of the students did excellent work,” observes Rick Gregg, Operating Director of Healthcare Programs and the instructor for HLTH 890. “Two of the most thought provoking papers are Accountable Care Organizations: The Key to Transforming Healthcare by Talia Goldsmith and Successful Implementation of Quality and Performance Improvement Plans: Critical Areas to Address in Strategic Planning by Jesse DeHond. These papers utilize key aspects of our course as the foundation for examining two of the most important challenges in healthcare, and the papers deserve to be read by a wider audience than just me.”

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