By DeVry University
January 19, 2023
10 min read
January 19, 2023
10 min read
Healthcare administration is a broad occupational category overseeing the management, supervision and administrative tasks of a variety of healthcare operations. In today’s dynamic and complex healthcare delivery environment, individuals with varying degrees of education and training provide a wide variety of administrative services in settings like physicians’ offices and hospitals, as well as nursing, rehabilitation and outpatient facilities.
Administrative Services Manager: These managers ensure that resources are being properly allocated throughout a care facility by overseeing other administrative staff to coordinate background tasks like recordkeeping and facility monitoring.
Regulatory Affairs Manager: Regulatory affairs managers are critical in this highly regulated industry. They work to guarantee that regulations are being met at every level and are responsible for interacting with government officials and inspectors when they arrive at the site.
Compliance Manager: Compliance managers ensure that all billing and record-keeping elements meet government regulations. They also work with cyber security specialists to make the organization’s data systems secure and provide briefings on the proper transfer of information.
Medical and Health Services Manager: These administrative managers are in charge of planning, directing and coordinating the performance of medical services. Depending on the size of the care facility, they may be responsible for a specific department or the entire facility.
Business Administration: This skill involves your ability to use business acumen, strategic planning and management skills to manage the daily operations of a healthcare facility, or a department within a large facility or system. You may be responsible for ensuring the facility or department reaches productivity and financial goals, and may coordinate activities to ensure competitiveness with other facilities in your area.
Budgeting: Budgeting involves planning, allocating and managing resources based on available funds. As an administrator, your abilities in this area can have a considerable effect on your facility’s bottom line. Budgeting for things like new personnel, equipment or repairs will require you to have a clear understanding of all the costs associated with your facility or department’s operations, and how new costs will impact its profitability.
Data Analysis: Strong data analysis skills will enable you to gather, manipulate and present data to help management make well-informed decisions. Skills in this area can help you store and protect the patient information that is vital to quality healthcare delivery.
Quality Assurance: Hospitals and other healthcare facilities and systems typically set quality assurance standards and conduct regular evaluations to see how each department measures up to those standards. Effective healthcare administrators may be involved in drafting these standards, evaluating performance and creating a culture of accountability within their administrative area.
Healthcare administrators also need to make sure the facilities they manage abide by rules set by established regulatory or accreditation bodies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Joint Commission.
To be effective, a healthcare administrator should also demonstrate soft skills, like these identified by LinkedIn:
Communication: Strong communication skills, in both verbal and written form, are essential to maintain high standards and an atmosphere of mutual respect when communicating with patients, staff, medical professionals and others. Discretion is particularly important in the healthcare environment to maintain compliance with health information privacy regulations.
Planning and Time Management: Robust skills in time management and planning are essential in this demanding environment, where administrators are expected to be talented multi-taskers capable of handling deadlines and keeping things organized.
Problem Solving: Managing conflicts, errors, mix-ups and other things that may go wrong requires managers to have excellent problem-solving skills. Good administrators can anticipate problems before they occur, and then use creativity and efficiency to resolve issues and get things back on track.
Healthcare administrators oversee the daily administrative operations of healthcare facilities like hospitals, medical practices, surgery centers, nursing and rehabilitation facilities and others. According to BLS, the typical duties of medical and health services managers may include:
Healthcare administrators work in a broad range of settings where patient care services are planned, delivered, regulated or paid for. This may include:
The answer to this question depends on what type of healthcare setting you plan to work in and where. The BLS explains it this way:
Although certification is not always required, some managers may choose to pursue certifications through the following organizations:
Healthcare administrators and healthcare managers work in the same healthcare settings, and the BLS groups the two together statistically under the occupational category of Medical and Health Services Managers. According to Indeed, however, they differ in a few areas.
According to BLS, many employers require prospective managers and administrators to have some previous work experience in an administrative or clinical capacity. Examples of this kind of experience may be as a registered nurse, a medical records and health information technician, administrative assistant or financial clerk.
1Growth projected on a national level. Local growth will vary by location. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm#tab-1
2At the time of application to the next credential level, an evaluation of qualifying transfer credit will occur and the most beneficial outcome will be applied. Number of credits and courses vary by program. See catalog for complete details.
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In New York, DeVry University operates as DeVry College of New York. DeVry University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), www.hlcommission.org. The University’s Keller Graduate School of Management is included in this accreditation. DeVry is certified to operate by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Arlington Campus: 1400 Crystal Dr., Ste. 120, Arlington, VA 22202. DeVry University is authorized for operation as a postsecondary educational institution by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, www.tn.gov/thec. Naperville Campus: 1200 E. Diehl Rd., Naperville, IL 60563. Unresolved complaints may be reported to the Illinois Board of Higher Education through the online compliant system http://complaints.ibhe.org/. View DeVry University’s complaint process https://www.devry.edu/compliance/student-complaint-procedure.html Program availability varies by location. In site-based programs, students will be required to take a substantial amount of coursework online to complete their program.
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