Health Care Management Tools

Good management in health care organizations keeps the operations organized and functioning smoothly. There are a variety of tools that health care managers can use to cut down on their workload and help them get a clearer sense of how the organization is functioning. These tools---including simple questionnaires and analytical software---can also help improve physician satisfaction.

Web Information Sources

• A variety of informative resources for health care managers is available on the web. The American College of Medical Quality releases the American Journal of Medical Quality, which publishes research on productivity, cost management, and patient and employee satisfaction. They also hold annual conferences that help health care managers keep up-to-date on the latest research in health care. The Guide to Hospital Associations lists hospital associations by state. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality releases journals and other resources about medical errors and patient safety. Patient safety is one of the key responsibilities of health care managers.

Questionnaires and Surveys

• Health care professionals often need to be assessed on the job in order to measure their workplace performance, knowledge of new advances in medical procedures and knowledge of patient information. Health care professionals can be assessed using questionnaires, and management can use these tests to determine which areas of employee training need to be emphasized. Questionnaires can also be used to give physicians and health care professionals more of a say in how the practice is run, according to Tufts Healthcare Institute. Physicians can be asked about new policies---whether they agree or disagree and how it affects their job performance. Another available tool is the Employee Satisfaction Survey, located in the Health Manager's Toolkit, a collection of resources for health care managers. The survey is designed to give the manager an overall sense of the satisfaction of the health care professionals in the workplace.

Financial Analysis

• According to Med Assets, software programs, such as Service Line Analytics and Hospical, are useful tools when trying to understand how the finances and expenses of the health care organization affect the overall operation. These programs can analyze financial information such as medicine costs, training costs, medical equipment costs, patient billing, insurance billing, health care professional salary information, patient education program costs and general operation costs. With Service Line Analytics, medical billing and coding specialists enter data, the data are interpreted, and the software provides reports that often consist of bar graphs and pie charts, giving the health care management a quick visual representation of the finances of the health care organization. Hospical helps health managers with hospital resource management.