Course Overview
In this course, you will be exposed to valuable tools and processes for proactive health care leadership in addressing laws, industry standards, best practices, and ethical conduct expectations. You will examine political, legal, and regulatory issues that impact health care organizations and environments. You will analyze the effects of health care policy on health care practice and care delivery, with particular emphasis on the strategies used to monitor and maintain legal and regulatory compliance. As you immerse yourself in the content of the course, it will be helpful to consider how you as a health care leader will develop, implement, and evaluate organizational initiatives and interventions to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory standards. You will also identify and apply health care policy and care delivery concepts that promote organizational improvement. Using a systems-based approach, you will consider how elements of policy, law, and regulations affect your current or future workplace. To effect positive organizational outcomes, health care leaders integrate health care laws and standards, the organizational mission, strategic direction, interests of internal and external (or community) stakeholders, and specific code of ethics for all interprofessional disciplines.
Additionally, you will become familiar with how to present real-world executive care documents supported by scholarship, research, and evidence-based practice. The ability to construct concise, substantive executive briefs, communicate performance metrics, and present evidence-based recommendations to a variety of stakeholders are skills that will immediately translate into the workplace.
Health law and policy are defined and reinforced by the government, as well as by professional associations related to care delivery. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, describes competencies for health care leadership, which relate to health law, policy, and ethics. Additionally, industry professional associations, like the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and the American Nurses Association, have also identified the need for sound, systems-based leadership toward the assurance of quality health.
The ACHE conveys the need for a “comprehensive strategy by which government, health care providers, consumers, and the industry as a whole could reduce preventable medical errors” (ACHE, 2012). The ACHE statement adds that “Since the original IOM [Institute of Medicine] report, organizations such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and The Joint Commission have focused on developing and promulgating best practices to improve patient safety” (ACHE, 2012).
To this end, health care leaders are expected to be aware of laws, codes, principles, concepts, and ethical responsibilities related to quality care delivery, from both individual and organizational perspectives. This course addresses legal and regulatory concepts, health care policy, industry practices within a systems perspective, and individual versus organizational roles and responsibilities for quality care delivery.
Throughout the course, you are provided with links to websites containing current information and resources from government and professional associations. You may wish to bookmark these sites to make it easier to monitor them for updates and changes. Please note the inclusion of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership competency model, which serves as a frame of reference for competencies that health care executives are expected to practice.
The course closes with a personal reflection exercise that includes an ethics self-assessment tool offered by ACHE. The tool is not scored; rather, it serves as a confidential, individual assessment. Industry leaders are accountable to the communities in which they serve to provide ethical practice. In order to serve responsibly, leaders must remain vigilant in monitoring new health care needs, advocacy and policy roles, and industry standards, as well as regulatory and legal requirements and their associated ethical issues.
Kaltura Activities
This course requires learners to record an individual presentation using Kaltura Media or similar software. Refer to Using Kaltura [PDF] for more information about this courseroom tool. As a health care administrator, you are expected to connect with your peers to address and solve health care issues. For the third assessment, you will submit individual presentations with recorded audio. If you do not currently own hardware appropriate for recording presentations you can purchase it at the Capella University Bookstore.
Note: If you require the use of assistive technology or alternative communication methods to participate in these activities, please contact Disability Services to request accommodations.
References American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). (2012). The healthcare executive’s role in ensuring quality and patient safety. Retrieved from https://www.ache.org/policy/exec-ensure-patsafe.cfm
