Operations skill asset for healthcare administrator

Healthcare Administration Career Overview: When I come across term healthcare administration which basically involves administering healthcare services, healthcare operations, healthcare personnel, healthcare finances as such healthcare business , I immediately think of Oracle Apps which is a family of software applications form Oracle corporation that spans beyond software and covers core engineering subjects. Similar to that healthcare professionals who have very good core knowledge including credentials like Nurse Practitioner, Registered Nurses, Physician Assistant to name a few can choose to pursue interesting career in healthcare business administration What are the typical job duties in the capacity of healthcare administration? 1) Basic understanding of healthcare business is essential 2) Core knowledge of healthcare is a mandate. You can come from variety of healthcare background as discussed earlier 3) Healthcare operations management like single site practice management, multi-site practice management, hospital business operations management is an essential skill set 4) Must have financial acumen particularly the capacity to interpret numbers from business finance perspective 5) should have very good understanding of finances and key process indicators commonly called KPI 6) Must be a good leader and should be capable of managing personnel 7) In case of multi-site projects, multi-site home care kind of assignments they are expected to travel frequently to customer site Before we take a deep look at it lets first understand who a healthcare administrator is. With emerging trends in healthcare, changing market space, evolution of different types of medical facilities like hospitals, nursing homes, correctional-facilities, private practice, primary care health service center to name a few the necessity to manage the healthcare business demands skill set over and beyond core or basic CRM. In the past usually office administrators like receptionist will be delegated the task to take care of customer relationship management starting with appointment scheduling, follow-ups, billing the patient visits, collecting bills from patients if they pay using card in-house during visits, assist with billing disputes, maintain the basic inventory, manage basic accounting of the clinic etc. This can sometime be shared with the nurse in practice. Now, with changing trends, expanding business operations the role to manage the healthcare facility has gone past office admin, nurse onto totally new dedicated role aptly named as Healthcare Administrator Who in general can look out for a position as healthcare administrator? Though there is no clear set of rules a healthcare administrator in general is preferred from one of the following background 1) Nurses who are really experienced, who want to make a move onto business side of healthcare are the primary candidates for this job 2) Many healthcare facilities look for minimum registered nurse credentials popularly called RN 3) As with any healthcare professional the healthcare administrator should be certified in CPR the first aid training 4) A candidate with bachelors from healthcare domain, having prior experience with healthcare domain and is good in numbers can look out for this job 5) Now-a-days many colleges and universities do offer healthcare administration as a separate course curriculum to fit this role 6) Healthcare admin is primarily responsible for administering healthcare personnel not limited to nurse, nursing assistants to name a few 7) They should be self-starters, good trainers, should be brilliant marketers 8) Mostly this job is on regular shift but they may be expected to stretch on an as needed basis Now, how does operations management play a important role in this job? Administration is management of existing business. For management the key asset is to understand the basic operation of healthcare business 1) They should be brilliant in market research and should project the future of healthcare 2) Training the personnel is an operational skill expected from them 3) They should perform the review of healthcare professional reporting to them 4) As part of operational management they travel across facilities to make sure things are working as expected 5) Any hiccup in healthcare business needs their operational acumen to solve issues in workflow What salary range can I expect if I have this operational management skill? This job in general is a senior level role. On an average salary range is from $68000-$72000. However, with nursing background you are an asset as you can easily handle the operations of the business. Expect minimum $9000-$15000 extra