Competencies for All Healthcare Managers

Competencies for All Health Managers

Health care management is one of the most rapidly expanding Professions with great opportunities in both direct and non-direct care. Due to great complexity in the health care environment, the health care providers should have specific managerial and leadership skills. According to (Buchbinder and Thompson, 2012) Direct care are those groups that provide a direct care to the client. Where as Non-Direct care is which provides an indirect care to the client by providing services and products to the direct care setups. The health care managers are required in an out patient care setup, clinic and in physician practices. A large hospital setup also requires a large number of health care managers. While the opportunity for managerial jobs position is expected to increase in a non-direct setup as well as in equipment providing industry and pharmaceutical companies due to the increase in the number of hospital facilities.

Health care management is an occupation that provides guidance to the organization that is responsible to deliver the health care. This profession provides satisfaction and achievement to practitioners who want to benefit and help others. In a health care organization the health care managers are expected to have the quality of leadership, supervision, communication and coordination with other members of the team, professional attitude, sense of responsibility, knowledge regarding health care and the business related knowledge. The managers are expected to carry out their task in the best way to profit the organization and make correct use of the human and financial resources. They are expected to make decisions regarding the procedure of hiring the staff members, making appropriate use of finance and services to achieve the best possible outcome for the organization and providing the timely and efficient services to the clients. Thus a decision made by a health care manager creates an impact on the organization over all functioning. The internal and the external domains should be considered in order to for managing a task and for decision making. Both the domains impact the organization. The external domains needs of the community, competitors, investors, medical care and medical aid. While an internal domain includes client satisfaction, staffing, budgeting, use of facilities and quality assurance are things a health care manager has to tackle every day. This makes it necessary for the manager to take correct and beneficial decisions (Buchbinder et al., 2012).

According to Oliver (2006) there are the six credential required by a health manger to carry out management in an organization. First is Planning, the manager must set his priorities and plan a direction in which the task has to be achieved. Second is Organization, one of the key qualities of a health manager is to carry out the system in an organized manner, by communication and cooperating with the other members of the team. Third is staffing, that involves the process of hiring of appropriate staff and maintaining the workforce. Fourth is Controlling, which involves efficient monitoring of all the members of the team to carry out the best possible outcome for the organization. Fifth is Directing, this involves guiding all the members of the team through effective leadership. Finally Decision making, is the most important role of a manager, the future of the company is dependent on the decision made by the manager at various levels. (Buchbinder et al., 2012)

The key competencies required by a manager includes: the Conceptual Skills, this is an ability of a manager to analyze and resolve a problem. For instance, managing of patient's complaint regarding a service within hospital. Second is Technical Skills, which is an ability of a manager to carry out a particular task or objective. Third is Interpersonal Skills, those skills which allows the manager to communicate and cooperate with other members of the team. Managerial Position within a complex Organization is categorized into upper, middle and lower positions. The higher grade managers have more authority then managers belonging to lower grade. For example a President or Director of a hospital management has authority over different areas such as medical records, nursing and diagnostic services and laboratory. Managerial positions may also vary with the extent of experience and qualification. (Buchbinder et al., 2012). For example a manager at an entry level follows a policy protocol to manage a patient complaint, while a mid level manager is already familiar with the protocols and will manage patients and situation according to past experiences. A high level manger will be more professional and creative in making decisions and problem solving. Thus the way one applies managerial skills vary with the level of experience. When observed under Dreyfus model, a new manager will make decision as Novice, an experienced manager functions at competent level while a senior executive manager responds at expert level. (Stefl and Bontempo, 2008)

The following managerial functions should be exercised at three levels including self, unit or team and third is organization. First function is to manage one own self which involves being updated, motivational, cooperative with other members, being organized and managing time, monitoring and carrying out a positive approach. Second level is to work in a team or a unit, is to supervise and manage other team members to carry out their objectives appropriately and within given frame of time. This requires a close interaction and coordination between the manger and employee to work effectively and efficiently to produce the best possible outcome. Third area of focus id the Organizational Level, the manger should manage both the internal and the external factors, which includes the cooperation and coordination with members of those units which provide services and products to the hospital. Thus a high performance of an organization is greatly dependant on individual's performance. In order to ensure a high performance of an organization the manger must meet all the goals and objectives. A ONE (2005) created a self-assessment tool, that defines the competencies of the nurse executive in a competency framework. The tool allows the space for the respondents to grade their performance level from novice to expert on Dreyfus scale for each area of competency. The respondents are then asked to develop a plan for their areas of weakness. According to the feedbacks this tools is useful writing the job description and carrying out the review regarding performance. The core of an excellent health care management revolves around the degree of communication and interaction among the team. A success rate of the project increases with the installation of a successful communication that runs through out the team and to the investors. This is an essential skill required in every organization particularly in health care.