No matter which way you look at it, healthcare is a business. The main concept of healthcare is to provide help to people who may be sick or injured, but make no mistake: healthcare is a business through and through. Every business needs a team to make sure everything is running smoothly. This team consists of people behind desks and offices. In the healthcare industry, this team of people is referred to as healthcare administration.
A career in healthcare administration offers the chance to help millions of people every single day, but there are so many different job positions to choose from. It can be difficult to determine which healthcare administration job is the best. People are unique. What one person considers the best job, may not be the same for someone else.
Just about every job in healthcare administration allows the ability to help others while earning a decent salary. Which healthcare administration job is right for you? Keep reading to find out.
Healthcare Information Management
If you love managing information such as patient records and statistics, this might be the perfect career path for you to choose. The daily duties of this job include organizing, retrieving and storing patient records. This job will also require a good working knowledge of all the legal aspects associated with handling sensitive medical records. A healthcare information manager must know who can legally retrieve healthcare records, and they must know when it's legal to destroy healthcare records. There are three levels of degrees for healthcare information management: an associate degree, a bachelor's degree or a master's degree.
The Executive Route
Healthcare administration executives are responsible for designing and deploying different programs throughout the healthcare industry. This is not considered to be an entry level job. Most executive jobs within healthcare administration will require a Master's degree in healthcare administration at minimum. This career path often deals with numbers and economics associated with certain healthcare treatments. Healthcare executives are in high demand, and the salary is excellent.
Management Positions
Every single healthcare facility will require some form of management. Healthcare management helps run the entire office. This career path opens several different doors. Healthcare management positions are available in private practices, clinics, and large hospitals. This wide variety of job choices makes healthcare management positions extremely popular. A degree in healthcare management is required for the job positions. Many people are choosing the convenience of earning a healthcare management degree online.
Consultants
Consultants are always in high demand especially in the healthcare industry. As a consultant, you get to own and operate your own business. You get to dictate your own hours, and you to choose who you want to work with. Many hospitals, clinics, and private practices will often hire consultants to help them get a better understanding of the inner workings of their specific facility.
A consultant can help by identifying excessive expenses. They can also help lower costs by finding less expensive treatments. Healthcare consultants also get the luxury of traveling to many different locations across the United States. They don't always service just their local area. A healthcare administration degree is required in order to become a healthcare administration consultant.
Hospital Administrators and Directors
At the top of every hospital, is the hospital director. They are in charge of managing the entire hospital. This is definitely not an entry level healthcare administration position. It will take years of experience in healthcare management to be able to climb this far to the top. These people are responsible for just about every aspect of the hospital. They are responsible for budgets, policy development, patient safety, and supervising the entire staff. A hospital director would have already had plenty of experience in other
healthcare administration jobs.
Healthcare administration careers are in very high demand. People need healthcare, and in order for healthcare facilities to run properly, they all need some form of administration. Every job in healthcare administration helps thousands of people. Healthcare administration careers also earn a very good salary. It's these three reasons that make healthcare administration careers so popular.
Janie McDougall manages an in-home medical care office in Northern Arizona. Her company employs RNs to care for individuals in their homes. Last year she finished her healthcare management degree online and is currently earning her Master's degree to help further her career.Image Credit: Shutterstock
