MHA@GW Module 5
Health Economics and Quantitative Methods HSML 6268
Key Competencies:
Health Care Knowledge: Health care issues and trends
Health Care Knowledge: Population health and status assessment
Health Care Knowledge: Economic concepts and their application to the health care field
Business Skills and Knowledge: Skills in conducting economic analysis
Business Skills and Knowledge: Skills in strategic planning
Business Skills and Knowledge: Quantitative skills
My Development:
It was very clear that Economics and Quantitative Methods would very likely be my most difficult topic to date. After the first week, it was clear that this would require quite a bit more time for comprehension than the modules before this. Overall, the parts 1 through 4 and final assignment were a great building project. I believe that it would have been more effective for my learning had I known from the beginning what the learning outcomes and goals were of the assignment rather than just taking a week by week and trying to apply it to my own organization. The content included in the learning management system was very valuable, and seemed to provide more useful information than both the reading and live sessions. I believe that I learned the most from the student led sessions as I was blessed to have someone who really understood the material. The group work material was excellent, and a fantastic introduction to our individual assignment. It was very helpful to run through the processes with others to help mitigate small issues in the process that I otherwise would have encountered on my own. The completion of this assignment was very gratifying and I’m proud so know that I’ve done it. It was quite the challenge from week to week. The most interesting part was utilizing the information to correlate demographic information to health information. This is something that I would very likely use in my future as a health care administrator.
Initially, I did not see the significance of merging economics and quantitative methods, however, throughout this module, our professor provided valuable insight as to how an economist would utilize the information provided by the MEPS data and how that related to health care administration. There are many questions that still remain as to how a health care administrator would use economics in their daily business, or would the administrator attempt to utilize the Survey data to such an extreme model. In my opinion, it would be useful for population health strategies and the needs assessment, however, in daily clinic operations, it would likely not be entirely useful as it is self-reported.
I am grateful for the experience I have gained in finishing this documentation and analysis, and would now feel much more confident going into a system analysis for my own corporation.