Three views of courses offered by faculty in Health Policy and Management (HPM): 

Residential course offerings for Fall 2012

Course Catalog
List of all courses taught by HPM faculty

These are the official descriptions taken from the University catalog and the Graduate Record. Additional courses may be added on a semester basis at the discretion of the department.

Highlighted course numbers link to the syllabus for that course. Please note that some of the linked syllabi are for past semesters of the course, and the dates contained therein will not apply to future semesters.

HPM 230 Management of Human Resources (3). Introduction to the functions of human resource management in health organizations with an emphasis on the relationship between HR and organizational strategy. Spring.

HPM 301 Field Training in Health Policy and Management I (Total of 2 after completion). Prerequisite, health policy and management major. Required of all BSPH students in HPM. A supervised 12-week administrative internship in a health organization. Field training fee: $400.00. Summer I and Summer II.

HPM 310 Introduction to Law and Ethics in Health Administration (3).  An introduction to health law and ethics for health administration undergraduate seniors. Fall.

HPM 320 Introduction to Strategic Planning and Marketing (3). An introduction to the development and implementation of strategic planning and marketing processes in health care organizations. Spring.

HPM 330 Introduction to Health Organization Leadership, Management, and Behavior (3). This course uses an extensive and reflective team-based service learning project in a hospital, community health center, state agency, or non-profit organization as a laboratory to learn about management, leadership, organizations, and public health issues. The course also develops skills in leading teams, organizations, community partnerships, and societal and global health initiatives. Collaborative and adaptive leadership, leading change, adopting and adapting and sustaining evidence-based practices, quality improvement, organizational structure, conflict management, human resources, and other topics are addressed through current readings, case studies, reflections, and guest practitioners. Fall.

HPM 350 Introduction to Health Services Systems (3). An introduction to the current status, trends, practices, and issues in the delivery of health services. Fall.

HPM 351 Policy Issues in Health Services Delivery (3). Addresses current health policy issues in U.S. and global contexts. Spring.

HPM 352 Introduction to Health Services Systems II (3). HPM 352, in conjunction with HPM 350, provides an overview of the U.S. health services system, including such topics as quality of care and managed care. The course also introduces students to careers in the field of health policy and management and helps students develop necessary communication skills. Spring. 

HPM 420 Community and Public Health Security - Disasters, Terrorism and Emergency Management (3). Permission of the instructor required. This course examines systems for emergency management at federal, state, and local levels. The roles of emergency management, health services, and public health in disaster management are examined. Spring.

HPM 421 Community and Public Health Disasters - Agents of Action and Public Health Hazards (3). Permission of the instructor required. This course covers biological, chemical, nuclear, and environmental agents that threaten public health. Spring.

HPM 422 Emergency Management (3). Permission of the instructor required. Introduction of analytical tools to assess, evaluate, map, and investigate disasters (including biological outbreaks). These tools will be used to improve planning for disaster management. Fall.

HPM 423 Emergency Management II (3). Permission of the instructor required. Explores issues of preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation, and research in disaster management. Students will participate in the development of a plan and a simulation to evaluate the plan. Fall. 

HPM 470 Statistical Methods for Health Policy Management (3). Introduction of linear model approach to analysis of data in healthcare settings. Topics include probability distributions, estimation tests of hypotheses, methods in multiple regression, and analysis of variance and covariance. Fall.

HPM 472 Program Evaluation (3). Concepts and methods of the program evaluation paradigm as applied in health administration. Spring.

HPM 496 Readings in Health Policy and Management (1-6). Directed readings or research. Written reports are required. Fall, spring, summer.

HPM 510 Global Perspectives on Ethical Issues in Health Policy and Management (3). This course will address the ethical issues of health policy and management, with particular attention to the global perspectives on these issues. These global perspectives are both comparative and trans-national. Thus, we will compare the ethical approaches to health system issues in various countries, such as the different perspectives on informed consent, refusal of treatment, physician-assisted suicide, and reproductive health. The course will address global perspectives on the ethical issues in rationing of care, allocation of resources, and cost-containment; ethical issues of corruption, kickbacks, and conflicts of interest; and ethical aspects of research with human subjects in both developing and developed countries. We will also consider the cross-border issues that arise from movement of patients and providers across national boundaries, such as treatment of undocumented aliens, medical tourism, and the "brain drain" of health care personnel from developing countries. Finally, the course will deal with organizational ethics and compliance, including ethical issues for U.S. health care professionals and organizations providing services in other countries. Spring.

HPM 522 Aging, Family, and Long-Term Care: Cultural, Ethnic and Racial Issues (3). Current issues pertaining to the health and well being of older Americans, and how such issues influence family dynamics and choices about long-term care. Critical topics on chronic illness, family and community caregiving, ethnicity/culture and socioeconomic status will be covered in the course. Spring.

HPM 532 Healthcare Consulting (3). This course will provide students with a working knowledge of the various forms of health care consulting, including internal consulting. Students will enhance their analytical, presentation, teamwork and project management skills. Required for BSPH seniors and open to graduate students. Spring.

HPM 600 Introduction to Health Policy and Management (3). Prerequisites, senior status and permission of the instructor; does not qualify as a core course or elective for HPM undergraduate majors. Provides an overview of the United States health system, emphasizing role of policy development and administrative decision making through case examples. Fall, Spring, Summer I.

HPM 601 Issues in Healthcare (1). Lectures on current topics in health care. Fall, Spring.

HPM 660 International and Comparative Health Systems (3). Methods of comparing health systems, examinations of related national health systems and analysis of related high prevalence health issues. Fall.

HPM 664 Globalization and Health (MHCH 664) (3). Globalization--its economic, environmental, political, technological, institutional, and sociocultural dimensions--historically and currently contributes to beneficial and adverse effects on population, community, and family and individual health. Spring.

HPM 691H Honors Research (3). Restricted to HPM BSPH students.  Prerequisite: overall GPA of 3.3 by end of spring semester junior year in all UNC-Chapel Hill courses. Seminar for undergraduates who are pursuing the senior honors thesis in HPM.  Students will design an independent research project, write a proposal and complete an IRB application as partial completion of an honors thesis. Fall.

HPM 692H Independent Honors Research (1-3). Prerequisites, HPM 691H and permission of the instructor. Under the guidance of their thesis advisors, students complete the honors project developed in HPM 691H. Requires substantial dedication to the project and the ability to work independently. Spring.

HPM 701 Professional Training I (Var.). Supervised professional training; $550.00 fee. Fall.

HPM 702 Professional Training II (Var.). Supervised professional training; $500.00 fee. Fall.

HPM 703 Professional Training III (Var.). Supervised professional training; $500.00 fee. Spring.

HPM 704 Field Work in Health Policy and Management (1-6). Supervised field experience in approved health agencies. There is a field fee. Fall, spring, summer.

HPM 715 Health Economics for Policy and Management (3). Provides training in the theory of health economics, and applies this theory to important issues in Health Policy and Management. Spring.

HPM 715L Microeconomics Laboratory (1). A brief summary of microeconomic theory used in HPM 715. Co-requisite for HPM 715. Spring.

HPM 720 Management of Human Resources in Health Organizations (3). Permission of instructor required. Emphasis on clarifying concepts of human resources management, identifying the importance of human resources in health organizations, establishing the need for relating strategic planning of organizations to their human resource planning, and on examining role of organizational culture in behavior and productivity. Selected topics from the field of personnel management and interpersonal skills will also be covered. Fall, spring.

HPM 725 Health Care Strategy and Marketing (3). Permission of instructor required. This course introduces students to strategic planning and marketing as they apply to health care organizations. During the course students will develop practical skills in strategic management, such as internal and external environmental assessment, competitor analysis, and methods for evaluating strategic alternatives that can be used in different types of health care settings. The class will explore the leadership roles of governing boards, health care managers and clinicians in strategic environments. Spring.

HPM 730 Leadership and Management of Health Care Organizations (3). Overview of organizational theory and empirical findings appropriate to the design and behavior of healthcare organizations. Fall.

HPM 734 Approaches to Business Plan Development (1). Approaches to Business Plan Development  ('Capstone Prep') is a one-credit course to introduce and jumpstart the spring semester Capstone business plan process necessary for HPM 735.

HPM 735 Advanced Concepts and Applications in Health Policy and Management (3). Integrating and building upon the HPM master's core, this comprehensive course focuses on organization policy-making and administration from the perspective of the CEO and top management. Spring, Summer.

HPM 740 Introduction to Health Care Financial Management (3). A broad introduction to financial concepts, issues, tools, and vocabulary. Topics include: financial statement analysis, long-term financing, capital investment decisions, budgeting, cost finding and rate setting. Fall, spring, summer.

HPM 741 Management Accounting for Health Administrators (3). Selected topics in managerial accounting applied to healthcare. In-depth coverage of topics in HPM 740. Spring.

HPM 742 Healthcare Finance I (3). Introduction to healthcare financial management; the third-party-payer system; time value analysis; financial risk and required return; debt financing; equity financing and investment banking; securities valuation, market efficiency, and debt refunding; lease financing; cost of capital, and; capital structure decisions. Fall.

HPM 743 Healthcare Finance II (3). The basics of capital budgeting; project risk analysis; financial statement and operating analyses; financial forecasting; working capital management; business valuation, mergers, and acquisitions; capitation, rate-setting, and risk sharing, and; financial risk management. Spring. Prerequisite: HPM 742.

HPM 750 Introduction to Dental Public Health (3). Permission of instructor required. Survey of the theory and practice of public health dentistry with an emphasis on basic knowledge and skills necessary for planning and evaluating dental public health programs; conducting oral epidemiological and experimental research, and understanding the organization, delivery, and financing of dental health care. Fall.

HPM 751 Dental Public Health Practice (3). Emphasis on knowledge of community measures for prevention and control of oral diseases, scientific basis for their use, and program design and evaluation for specific populations. Spring, summer.

HPM 752 Oral Epidemiology for Health Policy and Management (3). Focuses on the epidemiology of oral disease and the implications and uses of this knowledge for dental health policy making and administration of dental programs. Spring, summer.

HPM 754 Health Care in the United States: Structure and Policy (4). This core course is designed to provide students with an overview of the structure, systems, and policies of health care delivery in the United States.   The goal is to increase students' knowledge and abilities to analyze and address health care issues from both management and policy perspectives. Fall.

HPM 759 Issues in Health Policy and Reform (2). The course will familiarize students with the history of health reform in the US, explore issues in health policy, analyze the impact of health politics on policymaking. Spring.

HPM 760 Healthcare Quality and Information Management (3). Integrates essential methods and principles in healthcare quality and information management. Emphasis on use of information to measure and improve quality. Will include presentations, individual/group projects, exercises, group discussion. Fall.

HPM 762 Quality of Care (3). The quality of health care in the United States has garnered significant attention among health care professionals and the public alike. This course will review: (1) the current state of the quality of health care in the United States; (2) approaches to assess quality of health care, and (3) strategies that have been implemented or proposed to improve the quality of health care. Fall.

HPM 765 Cancer Prevention and Control Seminar (3). An interdisciplinary overview of cancer prevention and control. Emphasis on projects and activities from perspectives of Epidemiology, Health Behavior and Health Education, and Health Policy and Management. Research issues and policy implications will be covered. Fall.

HPM 766 Cancer Care Quality (3). Geared toward researchers, the course examines the overuse, underuse, and misuse of care across the cancer care continuum, focusing on recent work defining, measuring, and improving cancer care quality. Fall. 

HPM 767 Disseminating Evidence and Innovation in Cancer Care (3). This course introduces the concepts, theories, and methods of disseminating and implementing evidence-based interventions to improve quality in cancer care. The course also examines the methods for conducting rigorous research on dissemination and implementation. Spring.

HPM 770 Operations Research for Healthcare Systems (3). Review of the systems analysis process in healthcare systems. Deterministic and random models, mathematical programming, queueing, simulation, forecasting and measurement. Emphasis on model formulation and computer solution of decision models. Spring.

HPM 789 Master's Paper Development (1). Second year MSPH or first year MPH students only. Permission of instructor required. Broad topics related to the development and management of a research project are covered. The major goal is the development and completion of a proposal to be submitted for independent master's paper. Fall.

HPM 810 Leadership in Health Law and Ethics (2). Course is designed to provide learners with an introduction and overview of critical issues relating to law, ethics, and public health.

HPM 820 Organizational Leadership Theory and Practice (2). Focus is on the behavioral, power-influence, trait, and situational approaches to leadership. Addresses core leadership principles plus leadership-followership theory, transformational and strategic leadership, and creating change. Fall.

HPM 821 Current Topics in Health Leadership (2). This course is the second in a series of executive DrPH leadership core courses. Guest discussants will introduce students to timely issues relating to health leadership in order to foster understanding and mastery of what successful top organizational leaders do to create change. Spring.

HPM 860 Population Perspectives for Health (1). A review of how the population perspective is used to create programs and social change for health in the United States. Fall.

HPM 871 Seminar in Teaching Health Policy and Management (1). Problems and processes of teaching health policy and administration, including supervised practicum experience. Fall.

HPM 872 Selected Topics in Health Policy and Management: Advanced Seminar (3). Prerequisite, permission of the instructor. Integrated study of selected theory and research as it relates to the organization and delivery of health services. Separate seminars are developed to correspond to the doctoral student's specific interests and needs. Spring.

HPM 873 Policy Seminar in Health Policy and Management (1). Seminar on policy issues in Health Policy and Management. Fall and spring.

HPM 874 - Advanced Research Seminar in Health Policy and Management (1)
This seminar will develop core competencies through a: (1) journal club to develop competencies in research design and expose students to diverse content and methodologies; and (2) a professional development series. Fall and spring. 

HPM 881 Linear Regression Models (3). Permission of instructor required (with exception of HPM PhD students). Perequisite: BIOS 600 or equivalent background in probability theory/statistics; students should be facile with matrix algebra, derivatives, logs/exponentials, and Stata. This course is an introduction to linear regression models. Topics include least squares regression, multicollinearity, heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, and hypothesis testing. Spring.

HPM 882 Advanced Methodology in Health Policy and Management Research (3). Prerequisite: HPM 881, or permission of the instructor. Research methodology as applied to understanding problems in health care delivery. Topics include simultaneous equation models, factor analysis, limited dependent variables, and an introduction to event history analysis. Fall.

HPM 883 Analysis of Categorical Data (3). Prerequisite: HPM 882 or equivalent. This course is an introduction to the analysis of categorical data using maximum likelihood and specification tests. Topic covered include econometric models in which the dependent variable is not continuous, including logit, probit, tobit, two-part, and duration models. Spring.

HPM 886 Advanced Applications in Research Methods (3) Prerequisites, HPM 884 and 885. This course will focus on advanced applications of research methods developed in HPM 884 and HPM 885. Examples and applications are relevant to health services and health policy researchers. Fall.

HPM 930 Doctoral Seminar in Organizational Theory and Health Care Organizations (3). The objective of this course is to review and apply various theoretical perspectives to research on health care organizations. Special emphasis is placed on comparing alternative theoretical perspectives and research strategies, and on identifying issues for organizational research in the health care sector. After taking this course, students are expected (1) to gain an appreciation of the complexity and dynamics within and between organizations operating in the health care sector, (2) to acquire a basic understanding of major theoretical perspectives applicable to the study of health care organizations, (3) to become familiar with how theoretical frameworks are employed and operationalized in the conduct of empirical inquiry; (4) to be able to identify factors relevant to organizational operations and performance, and (5) to apply this understanding to relevant health services research activities and opportunities. Fall.

HPM 950 The Research Process (1). The course introduces doctoral students to the world of scientific and policy inquiry. It emphasizes the goal, structure, and content of the dissertation that will be written in the latter part of the program.

HPM 951 Literature Review and Appraisal (2). This course is the second in a sequence of courses in research design and methods in the executive DrPH. The purpose of this course is to explore the nature and process of scientific inquiry in the field of public health. Specifically, the course will establish a foundation for methodological exploration and focuses on the process of developing researchable questions. Spring. 

HPM 952 Community Involvement in Research (1). Relevant literature and guest speakers will highlight cases depicting different levels of community involvement in public health research. Spring.

HPM 953 Essentials of Practice Based Research (2) This course is designed to provide DrPH students with grounding in basic quantitative and qualitative research techniques used in health services research. These techniques will help to build pragmatic skills the students will need for their next steps in planning and executing a dissertation. While some of the topics covered will be a review from previous master's programs that the students have completed prior to entering the DrPH program, this course will provide a refresher as they prepare for undertaking a dissertation.  Specific topics will include types of research designs, measurement scales and coding nomenclatures, analytical techniques for quantitative data, research techniques for primary data collection, research opportunities with secondary data and qualitative research methods.   

HPM 954 Dissertation Preparation and Planning (2) Part of a sequence to guide students in planning, development and implementation of DrPH dissertations.  Designed to prepare students to identify appropriate research topics, plan the approach, organize, and write.

HPM 955 Strategic Thinking and Implementation (2) The purpose of this class is to enhance participants' behavioral complexity as leaders. Behavioral complexity refers to an habitual choice of actions from a variety of mental models rather than from one or two dominant ways of thinking. To develop this competency, the class will systematically examine several major approaches to organizational strategy. Topics are the diversification ("How much should we do, and how related should it be?"), transaction cost economics ("What should we do and what should be pay someone else to do?"), agency theory ("How do we get other people to do what we want them to do?"), the resource based view of the firm ("How do we maintain competitive advantage?"), and processes of strategic decision making ("What are the most effective ways to make strategic decisions?").

HPM 956 Fundamentals of Research Analysis (3). Continues the sequence of research courses to prepare DrPH students for skills needed to undertake a dissertation. Students are expected to begin this course with a defined dissertation research topic, a research question, a hypothesis (for quantitative research designs) a supporting literature review and a draft methods section. This course will explore the next steps of the research process, to further develop methods for conducting the research. This will include refining what specific methods are appropriate, how to implement the chosen method, how to manage and organize data and how to present the data results. Primary data collection methods to be covered will include questionnaires/surveys, focus groups and key informant interviews. We will explore low tech ways to analyze qualitative data as well as high tech methods such as Atlas.ti software. At the end of the course, students will have completed a final version of their dissertation methods section and will have an IRB application ready for submission. Fall.

HPM 957 Operating in the External Environment (3) The course will help students understand and master what successful top organizational leaders must do to create change, both within and outside their organizations.

HPM 958 Financial Leadership in the Era of Sarbanes-Oxley (2). In response to a number of high profile corporate frauds and abuses in 2002, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The intent was to improve corporate governance and enhance the transparency of financial reporting. Where compliance with the Act is only required for public companies, many non-public entities, especially in the healthcare industry, are feeling pressure from a variety of sources to comply, at least in part. Gone are the days when leaders of organizations, even those without financial backgrounds, could export the responsibility for accurate financial reporting to others. Those charged with governance as well as the organization's management are expected to be more involved.  This course will explore financial leadership from the standpoint of management as well as those charged with governance and prepare leaders to look at their organizations through the lens of financial accountability and transparency. Fall.

HPM 959 Strategic Management in Health Leadership (2) The purpose of this class is to enhance participants' competence in leading within complex and dynamic systems.

HPM 961 Aging and Public Policy (DENT 607) (DPET 607I) (FMME 607) (HMSC 951I) (MEDI 607) (NURS 783I) (PSYC 907) (SOWO 607I) (3).

HPM 962 Marketing and Public Relations for Health Leaders (3). This course is one of a series of leadership courses in the executive DrPH. Its main purpose is to help students understand public health from the perspective of external audiences.

HPM 963 Program Evaluation for Health Leaders (3). This course is one of a series of research courses in the executive DrPH. Its main purpose is to help students understand the purposes of evaluation.

HPM 992 Master's Paper (Var.).

HPM 994 Doctoral Dissertation (Var.).

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