Master of Science in Health Care Administration

Charter Oak State College Master of Science in Health Care Administration

Are you seeking a leadership position in a Health Care environment? Let us help you get there.

Our comprehensive online Masters in Health Care Administration is an immersive Health Care management degree.  The curriculum focuses on leadership and strategic management trends, quality and performance improvement, leadership skills, community health planning and advocacy, organizational theory, finance, health law and research methods in health services administration.

The Master of Science in Health Care Administration is 36 credits. There is no room in the degree for elective credits.

  • HCA 505: Legal and Ethical Issues in Healthcare

    3 credits
  • HCA 510: Advanced Healthcare Finance

    3 credits
  • HCA 515: Leadership and Strategic Planning in Healthcare

    3 credits
  • HCA 520: Healthcare Marketing

    3 credits
  • HCA 525: Epidemiology and Population Health Informatics

    3 credits
  • HIF 530: Intro to Health Informatics and Hot Topics

    3 credits
  • HCA 535: Healthcare Information Governance

    3 credits
  • HCA 605: Management and Supervision in Healthcare

    3 credits
  • HCA 610: Policy and Regulatory Strategy in Healthcare

    3 credits
  • HCA 620: Healthcare Performance Improvement and Quality Management

    3 credits
  • HCA 640: Applied Statistics Research in Health Science

    3 credits
  • HCA 695: Health Administration Masters Capstones

    3 credits
  • Core Total

    36 credits

HCA 505: Legal and Ethical Issues in Healthcare

This course provides a framework for analysis of legal and ethical issues in the provision of healthcare. This course is an overview of health law issues and includes the conceptual foundations for societal, institutional, and individual dilemmas in healthcare delivery and the legal aspects of clinical and financial decision-making. It covers government regulation including legal constraints, liability, negligence, patient rights, confidentiality, as well as, corporate and administrative responsibility.

HCA 505 Course Syllabus

HCA 510: Advanced Healthcare Finance

This course focuses on theory and applications of economic analysis and managerial decision making based on healthcare policy topics in the healthcare financial environment. Emphasis is on capital financing, managed care contracting, physician contracts, equity financing, payment systems, decision making and performance reporting and analysis for specific healthcare entities. A key objective of the course is to develop the student’s ability to engage in long-term financial forecasting and planning.

HCA 510 Course Syllabus

HCA 515: Leadership and Strategic Planning in Healthcare

This course will provide students with an overview of the foundational principles of leadership including motivation, team building, power and politics, leadership tools and ethics. The focus of the course is on resource assessment, changing regulatory and other factors that influence the health services environment and the impact this has on the strategic planning process. The practice of techniques and tools for strategic plans in health administration will be used.

HCA 515 Course Syllabus

HCA 520: Healthcare Marketing

This course is designed to build innovative, customer-centric thinking and investigates the decision-making processes of marketing leaders operating within complex and competitive healthcare settings. Marketing concepts and strategies are presented relative to the development, implementation, and successful management of dynamic healthcare organizations.

HCA 520 Course Syllabus

HCA 525: Epidemiology and Population Health Informatics

This course is a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. health care delivery system including the interface with the public health system from a systems approach. This course introduces epidemiological principles and analytics for enhancing utilization management, quality improvement, and outcome assessment. This course covers topics within the core disciplines of public health and studies the distribution and determinants of health-related conditions for disease control using health information technology. (Formerly titled: Community Health Concepts).

HCA 525 Course Syllabus

HIF 530: Introduction to Health Informatics and Hot Topics

This course provides students with a broad overview of the role of health care information systems (HCIS) in health care delivery and examines conceptual and theoretical foundations of business management principles and practices essential to health informatics. This course provides the fundamentals of the acquisition, storage, and use of information in the clinical informatics setting. Emphasis is given to clinically transformative technologies which include fundamental knowledge of the concepts of health informatics and how technology can be used in the delivery of healthcare. The intent is to increase the student’s capacity for the design, configuration, use, and maintenance of informatics interventions that improve healthcare delivery. This course will also examine the trends impacting the clinical informatics field and the impact of natural and artificial systems and practices. (Formerly Titled: Healthcare Informatics & Technology).

HIF 530 Course Syllabus

HCA 535: Healthcare Information Governance

This course provides an emphasis on the business application of health law and an orientation to the organization and administration of health organizations and health information. This includes legal and regulatory issues, marketing, utilization management, information management, and information systems. The objective of this course is to prepare students to effectively identify, use and manage health information technologies for security, regulatory and compliance issues, system acquisition, health information exchange, alignment of technology initiatives, strategic planning and assessing value in health information.

HCA 535 Course Syllabus

HCA 605: Management and Supervision in Healthcare

This course focuses on the operations management and the strategic implementation of programs. It provides students with an overview of the foundational principles of management, including management thinking, planning, motivational theories, strategies, cost and revenues, effective management teams and effective management behavior in health care and the health care systems in the United States. This course focuses on the role of Management and Supervision in Health Care Administration.

HCA 605 Course Syllabus

HCA 610: Policy and Regulatory Strategy in Healthcare

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic concepts of health policy including policy formulation, implementation and modification. The latter two activities are illustrative of the interrelationship between health policy and health care regulation. Accordingly, contemporary policy and regulatory strategy will be examined through the prism of health care reform and the stakeholders whose interests are impacted by certain policy choices or by the passage or interpretation of a law.

HCA 610 Course Syllabus

HCA 620: Healthcare Performance Improvement and Quality Management

In the context of the continual transition of healthcare value to quality, students in this course will learn the fundamentals of performance measurement and how they are related to performance activities. Students will learn about and apply techniques and tools for reducing cost and improving care in health organizations. Through the study of operations management, students will be able to explain how operation and process improvement relates to healthcare trends. While examining a range of tools for managing and improving quality, students will be able to identify their application within health services organizations.

HCA 620 Course Syllabus

HCA 640: Applied Statistics Research in Health Science

In this course, graduate students will develop the knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions as professionals working in the health services field. This includes the utilization of descriptive and inferential statistics to assess health data and covers the principles and methods of data analysis and inference. The course is designed to provide students from a variety of backgrounds with the foundations of research methods in health services administration and health informatics. Emphasis is on the use and application of various data analysis techniques and their assumptions in analyzing health related data and data sets. The course is also intended to acquaint students with the conceptual and methodological issues of research design and secondary data analysis widely used in empirical health services research. This course concludes with the production of a scientific research proposal for the final project of the Program’s Capstone Course. (Formerly Titled: Research Methods in Healthcare).

HCA 640 Course Syllabus

HCA 695: Health Administration Masters Capstones

This course is a culmination of the program and examines the structure and interrelationships of health status and healthcare resources. This course has an interdisciplinary lens and focuses on current topics of interest in the various fields of health administration and health services management. This course serves as the final course for the program. Students will be completing the research project from the research course in the form of a business plan presentation and final project. A letter grade of a “B” or better is required for the successful completion of the Capstone course.

HCA 695 Course Syllabus
  • A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution, or international institution equivalent to a U.S. regionally accredited institution, with a grade point average of 3.0 or better. Students with GPA's between 2.7 and 3.0 may apply.
  • Professional resume.
  • 500-700 word essay describing specific career goals and objectives and motivation to pursue the advanced degree.
  • A minimum 'B-' grade is required in all graduate courses with the exception of the Capstone Course which requires a minimum “B” grade. Students must obtain an overall GPA of 3.0 (B) in order to graduate. All students should refer to the Academic Probation policy regarding grades lower than a 'B-' in the graduate program.
  • The HCA program competency model is designed to include 5 domains and 26 competencies identified as a pertinent and essential foundation for healthcare management positions. The competencies align with the program’s overall mission of "preparing a diverse group of highly skilled leaders that utilize evidence-based strategies to develop, manage, and improve various health service programs and health related organizations".
  • Domain 1: Communication and Relationship Management Competencies:
    • Relationship Management
    • Communication Skills
    • Facilitation and Negotiation
    • Interpersonal Awareness
  • Domain 2: Leadership Competencies:
    • Leadership Skills and Behavior
    • Organizational Climate and Culture
    • Communicating Vision
    • Managing Change
    • Innovative Thinking
    • Systems Thinking
  • Domain 3: Professionalism Competencies:
    • Personal and Professional Accountability (including professional Development)
    • Contributions to the Community and Profession
    • Ethics
  • Domain 4: Knowledge of the Healthcare Environment Competencies:
    • Health Care Personnel
    • The Patient’s Perspective
    • The Community and the Environment
    • Health Policy
  • Domain 5: Business Knowledge and Skills Competencies:
    • General Management
    • Financial Management
    • Human Resource Management
    • Organizational Dynamics and Governance
    • Strategic Planning and marketing
    • Information Management
    • Risk Management
    • Quality Improvement
    • Data Analytics
Kelly Fast, MS, RHIA

Kelly Fast, MS, RHIA

Brittney Dahlin

Brittney Dahlin

Cindy Edgerton

Cindy Edgerton
MHA, MEd, RHIA

Kelsey Jendrzey

Kelsey Jendrzey

Asia Johnson

Asia Johnson

Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson

Nicole Kapinos

Nicole Kapinos
DNP, RN

Neil Mathur

Neil Mathur

Randell Orner

Randell Orner

Gina Sanvik

Gina Sanvik
MS, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P

Frank Valier

Frank Valier

Deanna Macon

Deanna Macon

Outcomes & Pathways

Students who graduate with a Master of Science in Health Care Administration will be able to:

  1. Create a strategic plan for healthcare organizations or entire systems.
  2. Explain how to recruit, hire, lead and manage a diverse group of staff.
  3. Explain the role of the administrator in upholding the legal, social, and ethical responsibilities in the healthcare organization as they relate to patient/client rights.
  4. Develop healthcare delivery goals and standards to lead organizations in quality care initiatives.
  5. Assess customer service and client satisfaction for continuous performance improvement.
  6. Assess economic factors and payment sources that influence healthcare decisions of the population served.
  7. Prepare and analyze departmental and organizational budgets.
  8. Manage financial endeavors for the healthcare organization, including explaining financial and accounting information and the use of that information for short and long-term investment decisions.
  9. Explain the connection between the regulatory and voluntary accrediting standards and healthcare policies and procedures.
  10. Use and analyze clinical informatics to improve clinical performance.
  11. Analyze what communication, teamwork, and leadership skills make an effective healthcare organization and develop an implementation plan.
  12. Analyze global factors affecting the healthcare industry.
  13. Use marketing data analysis to develop a plan for growing an organization and creating brand recognition.

Question: How do I redeem my qualified credential(s) for undergraduate and/or graduate college credit with Charter Oak?

Answer: Tell us which credentials/certifications you’ve earned when you apply along with your member ID. We’ll do the rest. View the full list of evaluated professional credentials for credit.

  • Certified Coding Associate (CCA) up to 20
  • Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) up to 23
  • Certified Documentation Improvement Practitioner (CDIP) up to 19
  • Certified Inpatient Coder (CIC) up to 17
  • Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CMA) up to 10
  • Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) up to 4
  • Neurophysiologic Intraoperative Monitoring (CNIM) up to 35
  • Certified Outpatient Coder (COC) up to 23
  • Certified Professional Biller (CPB) up to 9
  • Certified Professional Coder (CPC) up to 19
  • Certified Professional Compliance Officer (CPCO) up to 23
  • Health Information and Management Systems, Certified Professional (CPHIMS) up to 9
  • Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA) up to 25
  • Certified Phlebotomy Technologist (CPT) up to 4
  • Risk Adjustment Coder (CRC) up to 23
  • Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) up to 29
  • Emergency Medical Services Responder (EMR) up to 2
  • Emergency Medical Services Technician (EMT) up to 6
  • Emergency Medical Services Technician, Advanced (EMT-A) up to 8
  • Health Services Executive (HSE)* up to 19
  • Nurse, Licensed Practical (LPN) up to 16
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging technician (MRIT) up to 16
  • Registered Behavioral Technician (RBT) up to 3
  • Registered Electroencephalographic Technologist (RET) up to 19
  • Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) up to 48
  • Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) up to 37
  • Registered Medical Assistant (RMA) up to 24
  • Nurse, Registered (RN) up to 64
  • Radiologic Technologist (RT) up to 33
  • Paramedic up to 41

*Approved for Graduate level.

Save Time & Money with Transfer Credit and/or Credit for Prior Learning

Applicants may transfer in up to 6 graduate-level credits from other regionally accredited institutions if the credits are equivalent to the content offered in one of the required courses of the program. Transfer credits must be no more than 10 years old and the student must have earned a “B” or better.

Students may also be able to earn up to 6 credits through an assessment of their prior learning and evaluation of credentials earned.

See information about your Financial Aid options.

Why Charter Oak State College for Your Graduate Degree?

  • 100% Online
  • Affordable
  • Expert Faculty
  • GRE/entrance exams not required