Second Semester

Well today was the last day of my second semester. It was a much different semester than the first due to the fact that all of the students were in the thick of the job search during the second half of the semester, which created an interesting dynamic when it came to group work and projects, as well as having 5-8 people gone from lectures (with a class of 25, that makes a big impact). Despite this, I still feel it was a successful semester with a lot to be learned. I have listed a few of the classes below:

1. Health Services Organization and Policy II
1. This was more policy than the first course in this pair. We spent the first half of the course doing an environmental analysis of a city, looking at economics, demographics, and other health indicators. The second half of this class was spent understanding the policy making process. One of the best supplements to this class was a Friday morning visit from the President of the Texas Hospital Association who came and gave us some real life examples of the policy process.

2. Health Economics
1. Disclaimer: I have a Bachelor's in Economics. This was by far my favorite class. The basic economic principles taught in this course were nothing new (asymmetric information, markets, price theory, market power, moral hazard, etc.), but the application to health care was new, and that is what made it exciting. Each class we discussed current issues and the economics that explained the good and the bad of each issue.

3. Health Care Organization Theory and Management
1. This was also a very good class. We focused a lot on cases and real examples. It was a great class to learn why people do what they do and how to motivate and structure an organization to a common goal.

4. Health Care Strategic Planning and Marketing
1. This class was split in half. The first half was focused on strategic planning, which I enjoyed a lot. It really helped me better understand the business decisions of many organizations and what impacts each decision. The second half of the semester was geared towards marketing and really brought the idea to life within a health care organization. I would say a lot of the content of that class was similar to a marketing class I took during my undergraduate studies, but the application to health care brought a whole new way of thinking.

5. Physician Relations
1. This was a one-hour per week class, taught by a physician. We were able to have many physicians as guest speakers come to discuss their careers, from current med students, to med school faculty, and even a CMO of a local system. It was great to hear the different perspectives and to better understand the physician-administrator relationship.

I hope this gives a better idea of some of the classes I have taken. In my next post I will talk a bit more about my work experiences in the industry.