Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE PHL5126

 
TITLE Organisation of Health Care Systems and Management

 
UM LEVEL 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course

 
MQF LEVEL 7

 
ECTS CREDITS 5

 
DEPARTMENT Public Health

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit describes the organization and management of health care and health care programmes from a Public Health perspective. Public health professionals aim to understand the health needs and intervene to improve the health of their communities. This includes the whole population, not just the most visible members (for example, those who come to the health facilities). All professionals who are involved in developing programmes and services which tackle the causes of the most common disease need to have this public health perspective.

The Unit is geared to helping the student gain the public health knowledge and skills needed to develop improved health programmes and services.

Study-unit Aims:

To familiarise students with the necessary management skills and ambience which appertain to the field of public health. These include:

- to appraise different strategies for control of diseases and other priority health services in order to select the most appropriate based on explicit criteria;

- to design coherent programmes and prepare action plans for implementation of programmes including the management of resources;

- to understand health, health care and organisational systems;

- to discuss current issues in health policy and those related to improving quality, access and acceptability of health services.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

a. Understand individuals, teams/groups and their development;
b. Understand organizations, their function and structure;
c. Understand management and change;
d. Understand the theory and process of strategy development, strategy communication and strategy implementation in relation to health care;
e. Understand the theoretical approaches to finance and management accounting and their relationship to health and health care delivery.

2. Skills:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

a. develop personal management skills;
b. identify and manage internal and external stakeholder interests in the management of resources within organizations;
c. apply basic management models and theories associated with motivation and leadership to practical situations and problems;
d. evaluate a range of principles and frameworks for managing change;
e. demonstrate the linkages between demographic information and health service information and interpret these linkages in the context of public health interpret and relate to financial costs.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- European Health Interview Survey 2008 (Malta) - Summary Statistics (Ministry for Social Policy 2009).
- European Health Interview Survey 2008 (Malta) - Utilisation of Health Care Services (Ministry for Social Policy 2009).
- Documents at Web site of the Public Health Regulation Division at www.health.gov.mt
- Annual Mortality Reports . Malta 1990-2008 (Ministry of Health and Social Policy).
- Epidemiology in Medical Practice Barker, Rose and Cooper. 1998. 5th edition - Churchill Livingstone.
- Various internet, Medline and local reports published recently.
- Lecture notes from the various lecturers.

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Pre-requisite qualifications:

A registered MSc Public health student.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Examination (2 Hours) Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Natasha Azzopardi Muscat
John M. Cachia (Co-ord.)
Miriam Camilleri
Kenneth E. Grech

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit