The healthcare administration field offers many different career choices. When you first make the decision to get involved in the healthcare field, you may have a limited understanding as to exactly what kinds of specialties exist within each discipline. When it comes to healthcare administration, there is a long list of specialties that you can focus on when you get started. But some of those specialized fields can be much more awesome than the others.
#1 Financial Management
If you are a person who loves to handle money, then this is the job for you. The healthcare industry offers some of the most complex finance situations you would ever come across. When you decide to get involved in the financial management side of healthcare administration, you will face several years of rigorous economics and accounting classes. But if you want to get right to the heart of what makes healthcare administration an exciting and important profession, then financial management is where you would go.
Your responsibilities would include creating budgets for your organization, mapping out spending projections for the next few years and considering investments in the newest medical equipment. You will also become intimately involved in dealings with insurance companies and other financial entities.
#2 Manpower Systems Analysis
One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare organizations today is the proper utilization of personnel resources. Many facilities are lacking in the necessary amount of nurses, doctors and research personnel to get the job done. As a manpower systems analysis expert, you would monitor the availability of personnel and then put together work schedules that will insure proper medical personnel coverage for your patients.
This a challenging job, but it can also be extremely rewarding as you get to work side by side with some of the most brilliant medical minds in the country. This is the job to have if you want to meet the brightest minds the healthcare industry has to offer.
#3 Hospital Management
Once you get started in your pursuit of a career in healthcare administration, you will become very familiar with the needs of a hospital, or any other large medical facility. The daily challenges of running one of these large organizations gives you a sense of responsibility that is hard to duplicate in any other aspect of healthcare administration. But with that huge sense of responsibility also comes a sense of accomplishment when things go right.
The broad term of hospital manager is often considered to be one of the pinnacles of a healthcare administration career. You will spend years gaining the experience and background necessary to be successful in this important administrative position.
#4 Hospital Human Resources
The manpower analyst determines what to do with the personnel resources that a healthcare organization has. But it is the hospital human resources professional that actually goes out and recruits that talent. When you get involved with hospital human resources, you will find that you need a broad educational background that allows you to differentiate good employment candidates from the bad ones.
This is the kind of position that requires an educational focus on human resources studies, healthcare administration and healthcare services. The rewards for a job like this include traveling to some of the most prominent healthcare seminars and getting to meet some of the more innovative people in the healthcare industry.
#5 Patient Financial Specialist
If you want to get very specialized in the healthcare industry, then you can choose to become a patient financial specialist. This is an administrator who works with families to make sure that they understand all of their public and private insurance and financing options. You would need to have a broad understanding of the insurance industry, the banking industry and the government health services offerings.
The big reason that this is such an awesome part of healthcare administration is because you get to help people find ways to get the medical attention they need. If you are the kind of person who likes to solve problems for others, then this is the ideal career for you.
#6 Program Management
The best jobs in healthcare administration are the ones that tie together various aspects of the organization into one centralized function. A program management specialist is someone who works with the various heads of departments in a healthcare organization to make sure that all project information is integrated into the computer network. The job incorporates elements of major project management and IT systems integration.
To perform this kind of a job, you will need some advanced computer technology experience and the ability to work with multiple departments within an organization. This is a job that will keep you busy constantly and on the cutting edge of healthcare technology.
#7 Administrative Manager
If you like to be the “go to” person in any given situation, then you will want to look into specializing as an administrative manager. This is a position that sits at the center of any healthcare organization and helps to keep everything running smoothly. Your job would include managing employee schedules, coordinating staff training and making sure that company policies and procedures are properly implemented at all times.
#8 Program Director
A program director in the field of healthcare administration is a very specialized position that requires a lot of generalized knowledge. As a program director, you will be given the responsibility of making sure that one or more of the organization’s processes are running properly. For example, the director of an outpatient program would be responsible for making certain that all of the patients get the treatment that they need and that the program is also running within the hospital guidelines.
#9 Business Manager
People who aspire to the top of the healthcare administration ladder look to become a business manager at some point. The business manager is responsible for making sure that all business activities within an organization are running properly. He is responsible for making sure that all financial records and accounting activities are in order and he is also responsible for getting involved with the business aspect of all of the other departments in an organization to make sure that they have the resources and personnel they need to operate at peak efficiency.
#10 Patient Advocate
This is another awesome healthcare administration specialization to consider if you like working with people and helping people solve their problems. You will become an expert not only in the inner-workings of your organization, but you will also be required to have comprehensive knowledge of all insurance and public assistance options available as well. This is a great job to have as you build your resume towards the higher echelons of the healthcare administration industry.
#11 Practice Manager
If you want to be on the cutting edge of the healthcare administration field, then you need to aspire to be a practice manager. More and more private practices are taking on services that used to be the sole domain of the larger care facilities such as hospitals. As these practices get bigger, they require a professional administrator to keep things organized and running smoothly.
This is an awesome job because it allows you to build an organization from the ground up and be part of the success story that comes with a very successful practice.
