Health care administrators have wide-ranging influence within the world of medicine. The leadership that these professionals provide sets the future course not only for the facilities they manage but also for the health care system as a whole.Managing a health care facility today is the close equivalent to managing an entire city. It’s a dynamic environment of specialized groups that have both direct and indirect relationships with one another, and at times, competing interests. To lead such an organization requires careful budgeting, tough decision-making, and above all else, the ability to maintain the respect and cooperation of diverse interest groups that are sometimes adversely affected by an administrator’s decisions.
Within this environment, a health care administrator is responsible for establishing health care standards, making strategic policy decisions and implementing the personnel management procedures necessary to support his vision. In addition to the internal leadership they provide, health care administrators are leaders within the greater community as well. They partner with other health care organizations, comply with government regulations, advocate and testify on behalf of health care policies, and maintain campuses that are significant to communities.
Although the professional titles of health care administrators vary according to their place of employment, the significance of the work they accomplish—and the interdisciplinary skillset required to do so—is universal. Healthcare administrators have the challenge and opportunity to deliver high quality health care within an appealing work environment while contributing positively to the greater community at large. There are few positions within the health care arena as exciting, versatile and rewarding as that of the health care administrator—who has the opportunity to lead, inspire and enact policies of far-reaching consequence.