Healthcare industries will never die as they exist to support people’s health. All countries around the world certainly have healthcare centers to take care of patients. Aside from the medical activities done by the medics, there is healthcare management behind it that keep the industries growing.
In healthcare centers where the treatment and medicine for patients become priority, they still need a system to make sure all the staff accomplish their job well and handle all patients properly. Among all types of healthcare fields, the healthcare administration or management is the business oriented one.
What Is Healthcare Management?
As everybody knows, most workers in healthcare centers come from medical education backgrounds. Majority of the staff deal with patients directly such as giving treatment, medicine, diagnosis, or even healthcare consulting.
However, the scope of the healthcare profession is not merely about how to tend patients. It extends to management in order to improve the healthcare business. We can say that healthcare administration or management refers to general management, leadership, healthcare system and hospital network.
Normally people call the one who is in charge of the management staff in a healthcare center or hospital as healthcare administrator. The healthcare administrator could be a previous or current healthcare professional. One thing for sure, the administrator graduates from the healthcare background.
Types of Healthcare Administrators
Working as healthcare administrators means you are the one taking control in the hospital. Of course the healthcare administrator could be an individual or a group. In general, there are two types of healthcare administrators.
- Generalist
Generalist is the staff who is responsible for managing the facility entirely. Since they have to manage all facilities in the hospital or healthcare center, they have to master all basic knowledge in the health management or administration
The generalist administrator needs to supervise all aspects in administration such as coordination, care, and planning. People regard them as multitaskers because they master all basic knowledge in the healthcare system. However, their skill in a particular field is not as deep as the specialist.
Degree
To be a healthcare administrator generalist, you should possess at least a bachelor degree in management program. But for the higher level like an executive administrator, you must gain a master degree.
- Specialist
Specialist refers to the staff who is in charge of supporting particular departments in the healthcare center for the sake of efficiency and effectiveness. Usually they support the departments like budgeting, marketing, finance, accounting, policy analysis and human resources.
Degree
Just like a generalist administrator, the specialist should possess at least a bachelor degree in financial management program to apply for an entry level job in a healthcare center. Some higher positions require master degrees with specialization in nursing programs.
A particular field like care coordination needs a specialist who already has an RN license. RN license which stands for registered nurse license functions as compliance that the nurse meets the standard, competency and qualification as a nurse.
Which type of healthcare management would you like to apply? It is better to plan what you become in the future by selecting appropriate healthcare studies that are relevant to your dream job. If you like to take control in organizations, then the healthcare administration is a brilliant choice.
Source: Healthcare Consulting in Asia