Career Opportunities in Healthcare Administration
Are you interested in entering the healthcare administration career field, but do not know what career options are available to you? Healthcare administration is a growing field that offers a wide range of opportunities targeted towards a variety of interests. The below provide a brief summary of some of the types of career opportunities available in this field:
Medical Device | Pharmaceutical Rep
Medical device reps sell surgical tools, implantable devices and medical machinery to surgeons and other specialists while pharmaceutical reps sell drugs to physicians. Both roles work within assigned territories and both require sales skills, being personable, and having deep knowledge regarding medicine, medical procedures and anatomy. They also both must know everything about the product they are selling—how it works, what the side effects may be, pros, cons and possess knowledge of competing products.
Clinical Director
A clinical director oversees daily operations of healthcare organizations, dental offices, mental health facilities, or academic, clinical research or community health programs. They are responsible for overall program administration, which includes budgetary concerns, strategy implementation to foster program growth, record keeping, overseeing personnel and compliance with company guidelines as well as state and federal laws. Clinical directors might also train and evaluate employees or recruit and supervise interns.
Healthcare Informatics
The evolving field of healthcare informatics brings together healthcare, technology and communications to improve patient data management as well as the overall healthcare experience. Specialists in the field design, develop, analyze and use both patient and enterprise-wide data systems, and they have strong backgrounds in computer information systems and information infrastructure. Health informatics involves everything from data collection, storage extraction and manipulation, to developing and assessing emerging technologies. Specialists can work in various settings such as hospitals, health insurance organizations or medical research labs.
Nursing Administration
Unlike most members of the nursing staff, nurse administrators often have less contact with patients. Instead their primary responsibility is to manage other nurses within their department. They are in charge of scheduling, resource allocation, quality assurance assessments, budgeting, recruiting and recommending policy changes. Nurse administrators also act as liaisons for senior managers and nurses. They work at hospitals, outpatient clinics, urgent care centers and surgical clinics—basically anywhere there is a team of nurses.
Patient Care Administration
Patient care administrators are tasked with ensuring regulatory compliance and quality of care as well as implementing policies and overseeing both patients and staff members. Typical job duties can include handling and processing patients’ medical documents, providing patients with insurance benefits information, compiling patient data and generating reports, or maintaining a medical record-tracking system. Patient care administrators are good communicators with strong organizational and multitasking skills. They work in hospitals, hospice centers, rehabilitation facilities or other health settings.
Supply Chain
As in other industries, supply chain roles in the healthcare field tend to be involved in all facets of the business process—from planning and purchasing to providing strategic direction regarding transportation, processes and data information and systems. The basic underlying goal of supply chain teams is to ensure smooth, effective budget-friendly operations. Supply chain professionals do this by helping to reduce waste and excess product; automating purchase orders and invoices; capturing pricing data; building relationships with the most efficient suppliers and implementing automated tools such as e-commerce infrastructures.
Learn More
If the above healthcare administration career options are of interest to you, learn more about degrees in this field.
