311.615.81
Quality of Medical Care
Location
Internet
Term
1st Term
Department
Health Policy and Management
Credit(s)
3
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
Asynchronous Online with Some Synchronous Online
Auditors Allowed
No
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Resources
Prerequisite
Required: Introduction to Online learning and an understanding of health care systems (or concurrent enrollment in Introduction to the US Health Care System). Strongly Recommended: Training and experience with writing US-style term papers or concurrent enrollment in 550.001.01 English for Academic Purposes I or similar training (eg, coursera – Academic English: Writing Specialization https://www.coursera.org/specializations/academic-english).
Introduces quality issues, including quality assessment and assurance performed by researchers, health systems, professional societies, and government and other third party organizations who pay for care. Provides a basis to evaluate the effectiveness of quality assessment and assurance activities. Describes different approaches to quality improvement and evaluation.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Describe a framework for analyzing and improving the quality of medical care
- Explain how to assess quality of care for a medical condition, including: relative advantages/disadvantages of measuring structure, process, outcome; different assessment methods and need for risk adjustment; advantages and methods for assessing patient satisfaction
- Describe the fundamental elements of quality assurance in the United States
- Discuss how to develop a workable quality improvement and evaluation plan, including: theoretical framework, quality assessment, evaluating assessment results and developing goals for improvement, changing individual health professionals’ behavior
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
- 50% Midterm Paper
- 50% Final Paper
Enrollment Restriction
Restricted to graduate students