If a career in healthcare management is in your future, you should give some thought to the specific type of job you’d like to pursue. Note that there are many options available to graduates with a bachelor’s degree. If you’d like to apply to an executive-level position at a major hospital later in your career, you may want to consider returning to school to earn a master’s degree.3 Below are examples of healthcare management career:
Ambulatory care facilities provide only outpatient services, rather than inpatient care. A couple of examples include a standalone urgent care facility and an outpatient surgery center. When patients do need to be admitted overnight, they are transferred to an inpatient facility.
An ambulatory care manager is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of this type of facility. At a smaller facility, the manager may be responsible for multiple departments ranging from human resources to finance to emergency response. At larger ambulatory care facilities, there may be one healthcare manager per department.
Assisted living facilities aren’t quite the same thing as nursing homes. The residents at an assisted living facility are older adults who need some assistance with various tasks, but who do not require intensive assistance or have debilitating medical challenges.
The assisted living administrator can act as the initial point of contact for potential residents and their families. This professional is also responsible for overseeing the facility’s daily operations and ensuring that the facility provides a positive, healthy and socially stimulating environment for its residents. An assisted living administrator may work on a variety of tasks ranging from developing the budget to approving a calendar of events for the residents.
As the job title implies, healthcare quality improvement managers are charged with improving the quality of patient care and patient outcomes. These professionals may work in a variety of settings ranging from large hospitals to teaching hospitals to nursing homes. They may do any of the following tasks:
- Navigate the process of getting the facility or a department accredited.
- Review existing processes and procedures to identify areas of improvement.
- Liaise with department heads and nurse leaders to develop better guidelines that promote ideal patient outcomes.
- Develop protocols for reducing rates of hospital readmissions and hospital-acquired infections.
If you’re looking for a career in healthcare management and you have a passion for technology, this role may be worth considering. Information technology (IT) is playing an increasingly important and prominent role in our healthcare system. Healthcare facilities around the country have implemented electronic health records and other technological advances to increase patients’ active involvement in their own healthcare and to facilitate the coordination of patient care.
It’s the responsibility of a health information manager to ensure that the facility’s medical technology is up to date and working as it should. One major task for health information managers is to ensure the security and privacy of patients’ health information. In addition, these professionals may do anything from recommending investments in new medical technology to developing staff training programs for that technology. The degree program closely related to this position is the BS in Health Information Management.
