Healthcare Administration/Management

Name:

Institutional Affiliation

Healthcare administration, from my understanding, refers to the overall leadership in the management of health institutions that offer healthcare services such as hospitals, nursing homes and community clinics. This is achieved by identifying and applying the best policies in relation to the healthcare economy, international healthcare systems and quality assurance with the aim of optimizing the prevention, treatment and management of illnesses. It is a professional field that deals with optimizing healthcare centers with a capacity that is sufficient and efficient in dealing with various illnesses and health problems in the society. It is a field that integrates business and health and is responsible for overseeing healthcare regulation and compliance. Healthcare administrators are decision makers in a healthcare organization. They are charged with ensuring the provision of better services by a health care system as well as promoting the welfare and overall health of the community. They ensure that the visions and missions of an organization are met.

My definition of healthcare administration is based on the information I obtained from my HSCI 312 class and other related classes. It is also based on some research I did before changing my major to Health Administration. These enabled me to identify the various roles, challenges and skills associated with becoming a health administrator. Through detailed lectures and extensive research, I was able to understand that aspects of good healthcare administration. These include effective planning, communication, policy formulation, implementation, and regulation etc. It is these aspects that define what healthcare administration entails and pretty much what to expect from a person in this field. All this combined with the basic observation of administration in primary healthcare facilities eventually contributed to my definition of healthcare management.

A couple of articles also contributed to my comprehension and eventual personal definition of healthcare administration. Mathew D. Rizzo, in his article; Tools for novice healthcare clinical administrators, defines Clinical administrators as leaders in specific organizations that manage specific departments or entire organizations. (Rizzo, 2005) He further explains that they have a unique background that combines both administrative and clinical experience skills. Clinical administrators have various organizational tasks such as enforcing policies and procedures, providing clinical supervision and balancing the budget. Rizzo goes on to explain that the roles and actions of clinical administrators ultimately create mission manifestation and vision in the culture of an organization. The role of a clinical administrator is solely to work on ensuring the success of the healthcare facility or department that he or she is in charge of. Rizzo goes on to explain that a good clinical administrator is time conscious and works in line with the mission of the organization by mobilizing all of the staff. Clinical administrators as sighted by Rizzo highlight the general duties and contributions of other healthcare administrators in other departments and even of the entire organization.

In my definition, I highlighted that healthcare administrators encounter challenges in the course of fulfilling their managerial duties. The presentation of any challenge requires that a healthcare manager steps up and finds a solution for the problem that has been presented. According the article Health Disparities and Health Care Management Practice and Research, Issel explains about the existence of health disparities in the United States of America and how big an issue it is. She explains that the formulation of mission and visual statements that indirectly address people in the community without embarrassing them plays an immense role in the reduction of health disparities.(Issel,2008) It is the role of healthcare administrators to ensure that these mission and vision statements are achieved. This is also a feature of healthcare management that allowed me to adopt my definition.

References

Issel, L. M. (2008). Health Disparities and Health Care Management Practice and Research. Health Care Management Review, 33(3), p. 191.

Rizzo, M. D. (2005). Tools for Novice Health Care Clinical Administrators. The Health Care Manager, 24(1), p. 3.