Health Care Administration and Service Management

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Courses - January 2025

Level 1

Course details

Communication for Effective Health Care Administration
COMM8131

Description:

Effective communication is foundational for leaders working in healthcare environments. In this course, students will explore communication supports and barriers, and conflict and difficult conversations as opportunities. Through the development of self-awareness and the use of professional interpersonal skills, students will acquire strategies and use various tools and techniques to enhance and strengthen their communication skills. Students will apply these skills to facilitate inclusive communication while engaging and influencing stakeholders to support organizational goals and operations.

  • Hours: 84
  • Credits: 6
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Professional Writing for Health Care Administration & Management  
COMM8490

Description:

Clear and effective written communication is critical to success in academic studies and in the health care workforce. In this course, students will learn the skills necessary to write effectively for various audiences using common health care industry formats. Grammar, clarity, academic integrity, and context for communications are emphasized with opportunities to develop writing skills through practice writing, editing and proofreading individually and with others.

  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Conestoga 101
CON0101

Description: This self-directed course focuses on introducing new students to the supports, services, and opportunities available at Conestoga College. By the end of this course, students will understand the academic expectations of the Conestoga learning environment, as well as the supports available to ensure their academic success. Students will also be able to identify on-campus services that support their health and wellness, and explore ways to get actively involved in the Conestoga community through co-curricular learning opportunities.
  • Hours: 1
  • Credits: 0
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Health and Social Service Systems in Canada
HEAL8131

Description: The present Ontario and Canadian health & social service system is in a constant state of change. Its recent evolution, present organization and foreseeable direction will be examined in this course. Interaction, interface, and related roles of various levels of government and private sectors will be incorporated in order to provide relevant context.
  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Project Leadership in Health Care
HEAL8141

Description:

Standard project management practices and their application and adoption greatly impact the success of health sector projects. In this course, leadership components of project management are emphasized, with particular attention to engagement of project sponsors, project risk management, and interaction with critical stakeholders.

  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Management and Leadership Essentials
MGMT8761

Description: In this course, students will enhance their understanding of leadership and management approaches in Canadian organizations. Emphasis on developing effective management strategies including, professional communication, planning, decision making, conflict resolution, effective team building and navigating change. Key concepts include professionalism, adaptability, boundaries and resourcefulness.
  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Level 2

Course details

Health Information Management Fundamentals
HIM8011

Description:

This course highlights the role of Health Information Management (HIM) professionals and their collaborative efforts with other healthcare professionals to manage health data generated in every clinical encounter. Students learn the importance of ensuring the privacy, security, and confidentiality of health data by everyone and at every stage of the HIM life cycle. The course provides a clear understanding of the structure of the healthcare system and illuminates the roles of various stakeholders involved in HIM. There is an emphasis on quality improvement, the application of quality models like the Quadruple Aim, the importance of digitalization and the use of Electronic Health Record systems in healthcare.

  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Human Resources Management in Health Care 
HRM8440

Description:

Effective and supportive people management practices are key to the success of any leader and any health care organization. This course will provide students with an understanding of current human resource practices in health care, as well as tools and strategies for effective human resource management.  Covering a broad range of topics, students will enhance knowledge related to job descriptions, hiring, training, supervising, managing performance, team building, employee wellness, human resources internal policies and broader legal considerations, and other current issues in managing human service delivery.  Through practical examples, case studies and proven human resource management techniques, students will be equipped to support employees and staff within health care settings. 

  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Engaging Collaboration in Health Care Management
MGMT8165

Description:

Collaboration in health care involves health care professionals cooperatively working together and assuming a shared responsibility for problem-solving and evidence-informed decision making. In this course, students will be introduced to skills and knowledge in order to promote and manage collaboration with internal and external stakeholders in a variety of health care contexts. Students will learn to apply best practices to collaboration, develop strategies to manage conflict, and enhance their capacity to lead in a complex, multi-disciplinary health care environment.

  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Health Care Operations Management
OPER8091

Description: Managerial decision-making on operational effectiveness includes the many challenges faced by front line managers. In this course, students will become familiar with the environmental factors that affect operational planning, implementation and metrics. The process of critical thinking and decision-making will be examined as it relates to management and leadership challenges in health care environments.
  • Hours: 84
  • Credits: 6
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Quality, Strategy and Value Creation Fundamentals
QUAL8175

Description: Students will be introduced to the fundamentals and guiding principles of organizational continuous improvement methodologies. The evolution of quality methods and the role of the quality manager in today's health care environment will be explored. A focus of this course will be on the utilization of technical and people resources to help ensure a culture of continuous quality improvement.
  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Level 3

Course details

Strategic Communications for the Health Care Professional
COMM8141

Description: Health care teams and providers require effective communication skills to ensure a professional level of care. This course explores strategies and applications for effective internal and external communications that support strategic thinking, fostering operational success.
  • Hours: 84
  • Credits: 6
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Entrepreneurship in Health Care
ENTR8260

Description:

This course focuses on strategies for fostering creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in existing and new-venture health care organizations to improve the equitable, timely and compassionate delivery of products, programs, and services. Students will apply their entrepreneurial abilities to explore their interests, develop a vision and scaling strategy for a new health care venture and present case studies profiling business development challenges in existing Canadian health care organizations.

  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Financial Practices for Health Care Organizations
FIN8231

Description: Key to health care administration and service management is knowledge of financial documentation and best practices. An introduction to financial skills will provide the fundamental framework to support financial decision making in order to effectively manage organizational resources and implement strategic decisions.
  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Law and Health Care Administration
HEAL8171

Description: This course will provide an overview of the current legal landscape within Canadian Health Care with emphasis on Ontario. Students will explore the impact of legal decisions on the provision of service delivery, labour relations, policy, and other managerial functions. Students will also explore the role of institutional governance, accreditation, and risk management in health care.
  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Current Issues in Health Care Administration and Service Management
HEAL8181

Description:

This course will provide students with a forum to investigate current issues faced by the health care sector. Students will use a variety of tools to explore innovative approaches to complex problems and reflect on potential implications to their own careers. Given the landscape of health care, it is critical that stakeholders stay current and anticipate change.

  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Level 4

Course details

Career Management
CDEV8132

Description: This course focuses on career management skills needed to navigate the evolving workplace. Students will evaluate their skills, attitudes, and expectations within their chosen careers and explore emerging trends in the workplace. Students will refine their networking strategies and create marketing documents to position them for success. Mock interviews will provide the opportunity for practice, feedback, and reflection as students prepare for future interviews. Students will explore communication strategies that support workplace success and advancement. By the end of this course, students will have created a personalized career management plan.
  • Hours: 28
  • Credits: 2
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Ethics for Health Care Managers
ETHS8001

Description: This case-based course will allow students to research, reflect, and communicate ethical decision making as applied to operational and strategic goals in a health care environment. Students will be required to look at ethical decision making from a variety of stakeholder perspectives.
  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Health Care Policy
HEAL8151

Description: This course will provide an overview of the current federal and provincial policy impacting the operation and service delivery of health care in Ontario. Students will become familiar with the internal and external factors impacting policy decision making and implementation.
  • Hours: 56
  • Credits: 4
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Employee and Labour Relations
MGMT8571

Description: Industrial relations framework, its legal, political, social, economic, ecological and ethical subsystems will be investigated. Processes governing the roles of executives, supervisors, employees, employee representatives, and HR-IR professionals in effective employee relations in unionized and non-unionized environments will be investigated through the use of case studies.
  • Hours: 42
  • Credits: 3
  • Pre-Requisites:
  • CoRequisites:

Administration and Service Management Capstone
MGMT8591

Description: In this course, students will research, prepare, and present in-depth analysis of a current managerial problem facing health care administrators. Students will be expected to apply a wide variety of concepts presented in other courses including the impact of the problem on human resources, organizational culture, leadership, finances, operations, policy and strategic and operational goals.
  • Hours: 84
  • Credits: 6
  • Pre-Requisites: COMM8140 OR COMM8141 AND FIN8230 OR FIN8231 AND HEAL8130 OR HEAL8131 AND OPER8090 OR OPER8091
  • CoRequisites:

Program outcomes

  1. Create accurate and effective managerial communications for targeted audiences that meet organizational objectives.
  2. Assess various factors that impact Canadian and Ontario health care systems to effectively lead the delivery of health care services.
  3. Critically examine ethics, values, and professional behaviour to inform personal leadership style and choices that incorporate concepts of equity, diversity and inclusion.
  4. Analyze health care organization operations in order to advise on continuous improvement and problem solving.
  5. Integrate data, critical thinking, and effective decision-making skills to support strategic and operational goals.
  6. Evaluate and employ human resources, organizational culture and change management strategies to effectively lead individuals and teams.
  7. Apply principles of operational planning, project management, and quality management to support health care operations.