What is the Employment Outlook for the Health Care Management Field?

The BLS states that the job outlook for health care management is excellent. The BLS projects that these jobs will continue to grow at 17 percent by the year 2024, which is much faster than average. Health care managers do everything from supervising clinical operations to handling online customer services. Below introduces some of the most lucrative and fasting growing jobs in health care administration.

Health Care Educator

Health care educators direct, plan and evaluate staff training and public education programs. They ensure the competency of health care providers, administrative staff and management personnel. They foster the delivery of evidence-based practices and quality improvement procedures. They audit patient records and internal documentation to assess educational gaps and needs. They collaborate and communicate with health care managers, executives, IT professionals, systems analysts, contracted vendors, provider groups and industry organizations.

Health care educators closely collaborate with human resources to coordinate training programs, materials and schedules. They develop and apply appropriate benchmarking tools and measurement techniques for quality and process improvement activities. Health care educators evaluate training standards and information to determine what is needed to comply with regulations. They summarize their data findings to make recommendations for corrective action recommendations.

Care Manager

Care managers coordinate services across the patient care continuum. They collaboratively work with internal and external interdisciplinary teams to improve patient outcomes through effective monitoring of resources, quality, and leadership. They focus on achieving target clinical, financial, and resource goals. They facilitate optimal billing cycle management and reimbursement practices through accurate certification and complete chart documentation. These are used to clarify diagnoses, billing codes and the medical necessity for continued stay.

Care managers conduct concurrent admission and continued stay reviews to understand current trends. They create documentation to review through extensive interactions and interviews with physicians, nursing staff, patient caregivers and information technology staff. They facilitate the continued improvement in quality, accuracy and completeness of medical records and processes. They need excellent planning, interpersonal, critical thinking and creative problem solving skills.

How to Get a Better Health Care Job

Anyone who wants to advance their health care career into management will need a master’s degree related to management or administration. These degrees teach students how to analyze health care regulations and understand the components of managed care systems. Students will be trained in human resource, system information and financial accounting management functions within the health care industry. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of health care documentation management including electronic health record systems.

These degree programs may include classes that teach students how to evaluate and mitigate physical vulnerabilities and information security threats in the healthcare industry. They may take classes on ethical practices and legal issues relevant to standard policies and expectations. There are general classes that introduce students to the concepts and principles of public health practices and health care systems. Students learn about the development of public health practices and public health information systems.

Anyone who wants to take advantage of the excellent employment outlook for health care management should also study strategic planning, productivity organization, health care economics and health care consumer trends. Other careers in health care management include program director, admissions administrator, health systems manager and health care administrative consultant.

Related link: 50 Great Value Online Colleges for Health Care Management (Bachelor’s) 2016