Career Options in Healthcare Management & Hospital Administration

The following are some of the important roles involved in the healthcare industry:

– Health Service Administrator / Healthcare Manager
– Health Promotion and Wellness Coordinator
– Health Information Administrator
– Health Information Technician
– Chief Health Officer
– Executive Director – Medical Services
– Patient Advocate
– Director of Voluntary Services
– Quality Assurance Director

HEALTH SERVICE ADMINISTRATOR / HEALTHCARE MANAGER

Health service administrator / Healthcare manager’s employers mainly include hospitals, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, care management groups or companies, health information technology companies, supply chain companies, government organizations, investment banks, healthcare insurers, and health care management consulting firms. The health service administrator closely works with medical staff and the governing bodies in designing and implementing the healthcare plans and policies. The health service administrator is involved in budgeting and financial aspects of the health facility. The main responsibilities of a health service administrator include the following:

– Carrying out the functional directions of the health board and reporting the updates periodically
– Responsible for maintaining accurate statistical records, corporate records, etc
– Responsible for maintaining insurance schedule for the health service assets
– Developing and maintaining health service asset register and asset management system
– Ensure all ambulatory vehicles have current registration and all drivers hold current driving licences
– Responsible for the effective management of health service’s management information systems and health database systems
– Managing stationary requests in accordance with the institution’s procedures
– Developing and maintaining the setting, planning, monitoring and evaluation systems as per the requirement
– Generating the annual report in conjunction with the health board
– Distributing the project specific information/material among the teams as requested
– May hire, train, and supervise staff, purchase supplies and equipment, prepare official reports
– Act as the institution’s representative to outside organizations such as civic organizations, businesses, and other health groups

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HEALTH PROMOTION & WELLNESS COORDINATOR

The health promotion and wellness coordinator position exists mainly in corporate hospitals and other healthcare facilities. They closely work with the public relations director in designing, implementing, coordinating and promoting the health education and wellness programs. They also assist in marketing of such programs. The public relations officer, the marketing manager may handle responsibility for such role in smaller hospitals. – The main responsibilities of health promotion and wellness coordinator include:

– Promotes the health of people within a community which is served by the hospital organization
– Assists in training of the hospital staff who is involved in community health education
– Determines the requirements of community, develops and conducts complimentary programs as part of community health education
– Attends official meetings and conferences to address the health education being implemented at the hospital
– Manages and handles the projects that must be completed within the timelines
– Responsible for the effective management of health service’s management information systems and health database systems

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HEALTH INFORMATION ADMINISTRATOR

Health information administrators are personnel with expertise both in science and management and assist in developing and implementing the healthcare data collection and reporting systems. Health information administrators play a variety of roles in today’s job market like director, assistant director, manager, privacy officer, compliance officer, claims analyst, clinical information specialist, HIM educator, etc. The function and role of a health information administrator varies accordingly within the work environment. The following are some important responsibilities of health information administrators:

– Provide oversight to the data collection and reporting processes
– Assure the integrity and availability of the health information to all the authorized users within the work group
– Preserve the complete, accurate, and legal source of patient data
– Manage effective processes and systems to assure the patient’s privacy
– Maintain the confidentiality and security of health information in paper or computerized systems
– Directly contribute their role in designing and development of electronic patient record systems
– Act as mediator for information services

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HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNICIAN

While the health information administrator designs and develops the data collection and reporting systems, the health information technician performs the data collection process along with the monitoring activities. Like health information administrators, they too have various functional roles within the work group. Their functional roles may include but not limited to, reimbursement specialist, information access and disclosure specialist, coder, medical record technician, data quality coordinator, supervisor, etc. The following are some important responsibilities of a health information technician:

– Maintain and report the health information in accordance with established data quality principles, regulatory guidelines standards and good practice guidelines
– Monitor the electronic and paper based documentation and processing
– Use the health data for billing and reporting purposes through use of various electronic systems
– Regardless of the format of the information in which it is stored, health information technicians collect, monitor, use, assess, codify and report the health information

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CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

The chief medical officer is the officer of Board in charge of its medical department. They shall report directly to the Deputy Chairman and Chairman.The chief medical officer will over sight the general administration and discipline of the medical department in a health facility. The following are some important responsibilities of a chief medical officer:

– Should be in compliance with all the relevant rules and regulations laid by the government that enforce and assure that all the working groups would follow them
– Ensure the timely delivery of healthcare facilities to the employees of the facility
– Prepare annual budget estimates for the organization
– Oversee the procurement of medical and surgical supplies
– Prepare the proposal plans for hospital buildings and medical equipment and submit them to the Chairman / Board
– Prepare and submit an annual report on administrative services
– Accompany and conduct the surprise inspections of hospital and attached departments with Chairman / Board
– Conduct periodical progress and review meetings of the Medical Department
– Conduct various training and sponsoring programs for the employees
– Conducts interviews for vacant positions available in the department

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RECOMMENDED PROGRAM

To work in Healthcare Management & Hospital Administration we suggest you consider the following online program(s):

Advanced PG Diploma in Healthcare & Hospital Management
Advanced PG Diploma in Public Health Research
Certificate in Healthcare Risk Management