By Jackie Roberson

Running a hospital or other healthcare facility is like administering a small city. Your doors are open night and day, and there are people in and out continuously, seeking services or working to provide those services or support those who do. The internal structures and systems hum with activity and need to be maintained, while new technologies have to be evaluated and integrated. Laws and regulations have to be minded. And the overall health and safety of everyone and everything involved is paramount. 

To manage it all takes someone with professionalism, leadership skills, business acumen, communication and relationship management abilities, and most importantly, thorough knowledge of the health care environment, the kind of key competencies that are developed through the coursework of a master’s in health administration. For more information on this degree, click here.

The success of a healthcare facility relies on people who can balance the medical services it provides with the needs of running an ongoing business. Whether managing an entire facility, a specific department, or a private practice, these are the keys:

1. Knowledge of the healthcare environment

Operating and working within a health care organization takes more than basic business skills. It takes a thorough understanding of the many interrelationships involved in patient care, among which are access, quality, cost, and resource allocation. Whether it serves the general community or a targeted sector, a health care facility provides vital services that people count on for their very lives. 

An administrator in a hospital, clinic, medical group, long-term care facility, health insurance or other industry-associated organization has to be adept at the day-to-day details as well as rigorous in keeping up with the steady and numerous changes in laws, regulations, and technologies taking place across the health care field. 

2. The business of healthcare

Administering a healthcare facility in today’s economy takes a range of hard business skills. Astute financial management is critical when you’re controlling costs and budgets, analyzing data, and making decisions about capital investments and strategic planning. 

In addition, managing human resources is a top priority in any health care facility. Recruitment, selection, and training of medical and non-medical personnel are paramount, as is making sure that medical professionals  comply with legal and regulatory requirements, licensing and continuing education.  

3. Leadership

An organization founders unless it is led by people who understand the dynamics of leading individuals and teams to do their best in an atmosphere of cooperation and shared goals. Understanding and managing change, and providing leadership in problem-solving and decision-making, are among the important abilities required to make any organization run smoothly, and are especially important when critical services are being provided. 

4. Communications and relationship management

An organization with as many moving parts as a healthcare facility needs people at the helm who know how to interpret information and communicate it clearly and effectively both up and down the line within the organization and beyond, to affiliated clinical labs, suppliers, and the like. Managers also have to represent their organizations to governing boards, professional associations, and the greater community.

5. Professionalism

The hallmark of well-run healthcare organizations is that they maintain the highest standards of operations in an ethical way, both in business practices and in providing patient services and communicating with family members. 

Medical and health services managers with these skills are in high demand, and according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field is projected to grow 17 percent through 2024, much faster than the average for all other occupations. People with the education and experience to take on leadership positions are needed more than ever in the face of physician shortages, an aging baby boom population with people remaining active later in life, and expanding coverage coupled with exponential growth and astounding advances in medicine. 

Not only is health administration a field that can offer great personal rewards, but according to the Bureau, the May 2015 median pay for medical and health service managers was $94,500 per year. 

Jackie Roberson is a content coordinator with Seek Visibility.