ALHS 2312 - Contemporary Issues in Healthcare

3 sem hrs cr

This is an issues-oriented course that examines the healthcare delivery system in the United States. The course examines the entire continuum of care and uses the construct of a fully integrated system as a means to evaluate the current system, identify the key issues confronting healthcare today, examine the causes, and propose reasonable solutions to a current set of problems. The student will develop an understanding of the unique interplay of the new and changing healthcare, technology, workforce, research, financing, regulation, and personal and professional behaviors, values and assumptions that underlie the current healthcare system. (3 lecture hours/week; not part of a TN Transfer Pathway)

Transfer (UT) or Non-Transfer Course (UN): UN

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to…

• apply organizational theory to healthcare management.
• discuss the historical developments that have shaped the U.S. healthcare system.
• discuss the concepts of behavioral risk factors, health promotion, and disease prevention.
• discuss the goals and objectives of Healthy People 2010 and the different health professions roles in helping to meet the goals and objectives.
• discuss the human and non-human resources that drive the process of healthcare delivery.
• examine the impact of technology on quality of care, quality of life, healthcare costs, access to care, and structure of health service delivery.
• differentiate between the concepts of group insurance, self-insurance, individual insurance, managed care, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans and Indian health services.
• discuss health services for special populations such as racial/ethnic minorities, the uninsured, women, children, rural populations, mental health, chronically ill and disabled, and people with HIV/AIDS.
• discuss the outcomes of the healthcare system in terms of cost, access, quality, and the policy issues surrounding these outcomes.