DO/MBA Curriculum

For more detailed curriculum information about earning your DO/MBA from Rockhurst University, please refer to the University catalog.

Core Courses

All students must take the following courses:


Course Descriptions

HC 6150. Health Care Systems (2 credit hours)

Course surveys the major components and organizational interrelationships of the United States health care system. Students examine the various health care organizations (HCOs), personnel issues, delivery systems, policy and payment mechanisms. This course introduces students to the public policy and business practice issues associated with access, cost and quality.

HC 6400. Health Information Technology (2 credit hours)

Students enrolled in the health care leadership program or focus only. Course reviews past developments and emerging trends within the general discipline of Managerial Information Systems (MIS), and within the specific discipline of Health Care Information Technology (HCIT). Students explore the business management processes required for successful Information Systems planning design and implementation within health care organizations of various sizes and types. Field visits and case studies expose students to the practical challenges involved in systems selection, implementation and ongoing utilization, including ethical issues, human responses to change, and best practices in project management.

MG 6370. Introduction to Healthcare Management Principles (3 credit hours)

Students enrolled in the Health Care Leadership program. This course explores basic principles and tools of management, including the planning, organizing, influencing and controlling functions of organizations. This course will further explore competencies, behavioral styles, and values of leadership, as well as roles of leadership and teamwork in driving organizational effectiveness. Ethical challenges often faced by managers and leaders will be highlighted, with identification of frameworks to guide organizations in fulfillment of their responsibilities to serve various stakeholders. Applications specific to leading and managing healthcare organizations, and to leading teams within those organizations, will be addressed.

MG 6326. Effective Communication for Leaders (3 credit hours)

Course explores the various techniques, instruments, processes and styles employed by leaders to communicate effectively within organizations. Students write, give oral presentations and learn to employ electronic media effectively. Exercises employ numerous real or simulated business situations that require communication in different styles, using a variety of forms and methods. This course is purposely linked to other MBA program elements to form the linchpin in a Rockhurst MBA effective communication experience that begins at orientation and ends with a capstone assignment in business policy.

MK 5025. Foundations of Marketing (2 credit hours)

Course examines the role of marketing in business strategy and planning. It covers marketing practices such as market research, environmental and competitive analysis, market segmenting and targeting, brand positioning and pricing. It also covers integration of marketing communications including advertising, promotion, publicity and sales -- both online and in traditional media. The course also covers product management in new, growing, mature and declining markets, both domestically and globally.

ACFN 6000. Fundamentals of Accounting and Finance for the Healthcare Professional (4 credit hours)

This course introduces students to basic accounting and finance concepts. Students learn about the relevant statements used in account and finance. Students are also introduced to basic time value of money concepts.

The course explores financial concepts at work in various health care organizations, and introduces tools and methodologies available to the financial manager, enabling future physician leaders to understand key financial data and make well-informed decisions.

EC 6000. Managerial Economics (3 credit hours)

Helps students assess a market and its stakeholders before attempting to make decisions. They learn strategic decision-making, effective decision-making, and how to implement decisions. Through simulations, live case studies and media analysis, the course explores competitive management strategies in a continually changing health care environment. Students learn to temper aggressive competitive strategies with respect for the dignity of all of the firm's stakeholders.

HC 6350. Quality Improvement in Healthcare (2 credit hours)

Quality improvement is a central topic in health care. "Report cards" are widely available, evaluating the care and service offered by companies and, increasingly, by individual employees. Effective health care managers must understand the array of performance measures and how to implement them. This course will evaluate the issue of quality from a variety of perspectives including customers, purchasers, regulators, and health care professionals.

MG 6120. Global Markets (2 credit hours)

Course introduces the student to the experiences of firms of all sizes, from many countries, to the issues of an increasingly complex and competitive global environment. Through case studies, current topical articles and lecture, the student is immersed in the internationalization process and multinational management from a manager's perspective. The student is expected to analyze and provide solutions to global issues confronting corporations. Prerequisites: EC 6000 and MK 5025.

HC 6260. Medical Practice Management (2 credit hours)

Course surveys the major components and organizational interrelationships of medical practice management in the United States. Students examine medical practice benchmarking, reimbursement, contract analysis and negotiation, operations management, quality management, budgeting and forecasting in medical practice environments. Prerequisites: HC 6150, FN 5025, AC 5025.

HC 6225. Strategic Analysis for Health Services (2 credit hours)

Course employs finance and marketing methods to analyze situations faced by contemporary health care organizations. Students learn how different management strategies affect financial performance. Through sensitivity analysis, they learn to simulate a marketing business decision. Students employ various techniques for forecasting, to include pro forma and regression analysis, and apply these techniques to business decisions. Prerequisites: HC 6150, FN 5025, MK 5025.

HC 6300. Health Care Policy (2 credit hours)

This course examines political issues affecting contemporary health care services by analyzing policy goals, public policy formulation processes, and external environments.  Analysis blends the use of managerial epidemiology, biostatistics, political and economic analysis, with an understanding of public health initiatives.  Future health care leaders also gain an appreciation for how political structures determine interactions with local and national governments.

MG 6130. Corporate Social Responsibility (2 credit hours)

Corporate social responsibility is the formation and stewardship of policies and processes that lead to a culture of good decision-making.  The scope of these decisions impacts both the very functioning of the company and its constituencies and the society in which the firm exists.  Stakeholder analysis plays an important role in the course not only in examination of internal business decisions and processes, but also externally in understanding, anticipating and incorporating impacts and responses from social, governmental and environmental factors into decision-making.

BIA 6300. Business Intelligence (1-2 credit hours)

Business leaders must have the ability to collect and interpret information concerning customers, suppliers, competitors, and make decisions that affect their company’s performance. Business Intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making with an emphasis on knowledge management. Using the case study approach in combination with contemporary software tools, students will apply the concepts of business process analysis, quality control and improvement, performance monitoring through performance dashboards and balanced scorecards and process simulation.

MG 6340. Health Law (1 credit hour)

An introduction to the basics of health care law includes STARK, antitrust, contracts and how they are utilized in the overall health care environment.

HC 6425. Health Care Leadership Capstone (3 credit hours)

Course integrates core business concepts and managerial perspectives mastered earlier in the MBA program. Students write, present and critique business plans that define organizational vision, mission, goals, values, structure, systems and strategies for competitive advantage and growth. Student-developed business plans also describe the management processes by which goals and resources allocations will be continuously monitored and adapted. HC6225 must be taken prior to or concurrently with this course. This course must be taken as three of the last nine credit hours in a Health Care Leadership MBA student's program of study.