Overseeing the administration work in a hospital is a tough job and involves few roadblocks. These obstacles come in the way of efficient functioning of a hospital posing a major threat to their repute. Also known as the directors, the hospital administrators who are responsible for supervising the business operations have to acquire the specialized skills and knowledge to overcome these hindrances.The healthcare system is transforming with the changing business scenario and technological advancements. The administrator professionals need to evolve along with the other resources and acquire the necessary skills to perform better.
The hospital administrator’s job is a demanding one with the increased competition and healthcare expenses. However, these experts have to overcome the following obstacles to establishing improved healthcare facilities, discipline taking into account the financial aspect.
- The competition: Healthcare industry faces a serious crisis of manpower that hits hard on the revenue generation for the hospitals. The hospitals on an average pay more to their employees. The employment opportunities in the healthcare industry are expected to increase in the next five years when hospitals will be in desperate need of employees in all the areas like nurses and licensed practitioners, home helps for health, surgeons and physicians, assistants and attendants.
Considering this to be the scenario, the hospital administrators need to do a workforce analysis, forecasting the demand of employees and identifying the demand-supply gap. They should be adept in recruitment and retention of skilled and dexterous professionals. These experts need to have excellent networking skills to establish a connection with the medical schools and institutes offering healthcare degrees. They should also work on the branding and promotion of the hospitals to rope in more and more individuals to work for them. They need to introduce various benefits apart from a standard pay to ensure that each employee feels good to be a part of the medical unit. Above all, the person needs to be passionate about the job.
- Expertise necessary for expansion:Changing times sees more specialized healthcare system. Springing of a range of medical units apart from the traditional hospitals like outpatient surgery centers managed by the physicians, centers for diagnosis, and specialty hospitals have propelled the competition where the traditional ones are struggling to secure its space in the market. To secure its market space, it is imperative for the role of the hospital administrators to develop a strategy of providing specific care. They must research the strength of the various other medical care units in the locality, identify their own areas of growth and build a strategy around it. Setting a yardstick for the practices is essential while developing such a strategy. This is necessary to build a strong reputation in the practice area.
- Future prospects:Considering the future is imperative to this job role to build a bright career. The demand for excellent medical care and services is growing by day the thrust of which is felt by the hospitals. Now the reimbursements are based on the quality of the services offered. When patients are satisfied with the overall treatment then you can expect a good promotion for the hospital. The credit to these quality services generally goes to the hospital administrators. Thus, hospitals are analyzing the market trends to make sure that every penny that they are investing to improve their standards of services offered is valued and at par with the customer’s expectations.
- Fusing technology with healthcare: Technology has made some breakthrough innovations in the healthcare industry leading to improved care and facilities for the patients. The medical service providers are investing hefty sums behind state-of-the-art healthcare systems that allow uninterrupted interactions between physicians, patient and hospitals. Ensuring effective use of technology is crucial to the role of the administrator. These professionals must have extensive skills that will help in proper integration of technology to deliver the desired end result. Their knowledge base should extend from the electronic mode of communications to the improved imaging systems. They must develop themselves with the progressive medical and technical environments and be aware of the changes made in the government policies and regulations.
- Managing medical finance scheme effectively: Healthcare administrator ensures quality medical services at reasonable prices. With changing government policies, increase in unemployment and the exorbitant cost of medical services, these supervisors should help the patients to make use of proper medical insurance and in the right way. In this way, these professionals could nullify the expenses for the needy, retired and aging population.
Therefore, in order to make a career in health care administration you have to deal with the aforementioned challenges and be well-equipped to churn them into productive outcomes. The right move against to combat these hurdles will help you to grow in this job area.
Author’s Bio: Agniva Banerjee is a writer by profession. She likes curating informative articles and blogs on diverse areas that provides a good read. She loves engaging the readers through her words and welcomes feedback of all sorts.