Healthcare Management Styles

The field of health care management is growing both in size and importance. As expanded options in technology and health care settings change the way care is delivered, health care management plays a vital role in helping changes happen without disrupting patient care.



Health care managers handle everything from finance to government relations to staff oversight to technology decisions. Because the role of management potentially affects the quality of care at every level, the management style used is important.

Evidence-Based

• An evidence-based health care management style is one in which managers meet regularly with caregivers to discuss which interventions work most effectively for patients. The managers use the evidence they receive from caregivers to make decisions and set policies. Through regular contact, health care managers and caregivers can steadily improve the quality of care.

Integrative

• The rise of technology, both for advances in treatment and for improving the flow of information, has strongly affected the health care sector. So has the growing role of government, which regulates health care and is also the largest purchaser of health care services. An integrative style of management surpasses typical business models of management by addressing the effects of technology and government on the overall system. Such a management style seeks to improve quality while lowering costs and increasing efficiency by quickly adapting to changes and integrating technologies that can improve services.

Utilization

• A third management style focuses more on tracking and managing the actual utilization of services. The two hallmarks of utilization management are precertification and concurrent review. With precertification, a patient's need for treatment is reviewed and approved by health care administrators before that treatment is rendered or approved for payment by an insurance provider. At the time of precertification, administrators also attempt to determine the patient's need for ongoing care, a process called concurrent review. The goal of this management style is to reduce costs by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and procedures.