Why Choose Health Care Management as a Career?

The area of health care continues to grow and explode into new fields of study and research. Health care management professionals now team with law, business and criminal justice professionals to develop future strategic plans and attempt to solve the challenges facing society. Leaders in the health care field must be visionaries as well as solvers of the daily problems and struggles in medicine. Every day in a health care management job offers something new and rewarding.

Health Care Executives

• Executives in the health care field make sure that their organizations have the medical, operational and economic structures in place to meet the varied needs of their patients and the wider communities. They team up with doctors, nurses and other health care providers to offer medical care and with members of the community to ensure that people are being educated about pressing health issues.

Job Variety

• In large health care institutions, for example, medical centers, there may be several managers overseeing such areas as surgery, laboratories and nursing. Other managers may be in charge of more administrative areas, for instance, billing, records and information services. In smaller institutions, such as rehabilitation centers and assisted-living facilities, there is one director or senior manager who oversees all of the operations.

Areas of Interest

• Choosing a career in health care allows you to become part of this growing industry as well as another one of your choosing. Many individuals who are leaders in health care combine this with another area of interest. For example, there are health care managers in such departments as marketing, fundraising, finance and social work.

Flexibility and Promotion

• A career in health care management can offer people the flexibility of changing paths within the same or another institution. They are using their skills and health care background and knowledge and applying them to different goals and challenges. For example, someone who has been in patient care may become a member of a team concerned with the construction of a new surgical wing in the medical center. Each time a health care manager works in a different area, it provides another opportunity for advancement in level and salary.

Helping Others

• By being an administrator in a health care facility, you know that you have the opportunity to help other people every day through the medical care provided to the patients, their families and their communities. You could be making decisions that are improving the lives of thousands of people. The occupation provides a rewarding sense of accomplishment.