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Education
Administering health care
IF THERE'S one industry that almost never faces a recession, it is health care. The modern health care system is now a complex nexus of pharmaceutical companies, instrumentation manufacturers, hospitals of different sizes and types, rehabilitation centres, and insurance companies. A system of such complexity calls for a wide variety of professionals to keep it going, and the medical practitioners themselves form only one of the important groups. Apart from the paramedical and technical support groups, an important element in the system is the health care manager — or more correctly, the people who form the administrative structure of the system. Health care management therefore has evolved as a distinct specialty in the area of management studies. The needs of this particular industry are so specific that they call for a different orientation and style of administration. A fair number of institutes and universities in the country are now offering post-graduate diplomas and degrees in the field of health care management. Most of these courses run for two years and combine basic management studies with an introduction to health care systems. To enter such a course, one has to have a degree in any subject. But working in the health care industry is not quite like being in any other service sector.
The issues and expectations are different, and so is the mindset required of those who go into the field. "You need to have the service motto," says Lalitha Raghuram, the chief organ transplant coordinator at Global Hospitals, Hyderabad. "Health care management demands that one works in a highly ethical manner. You can't look at people as mere customers, but as human beings who need to be treated with as much care as possible," she adds. A health care manager does more than simply create and run efficient systems. He/she also needs to work closely with people (who in turn work with other people, the patients) and often get into community awareness and also marketing of health services. Lalitha's own experience in health care management began nearly 15 years ago, when she was given charge of the patient care administration at L.V.Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad. This involved making sure the patient inflow and outflow systems were properly managed, scheduling appointments, ensuring resource availability in terms of staffing of theatres and outpatient departments, and overseeing case documentation and records.
"It's a tough job, but there's a tremendous amount of satisfaction at the end of the day," says Lalitha, because what you do directly has an impact on people's health, and their lives. With the number of new hospitals, both corporate and philanthropic, coming up around the country, this is a field where jobs will grow for the next several years. A Bangalore based research firm estimates that currently there are more than 15 lakh people working in the health care industry, and there is a huge shortfall of all kinds of health care personnel, particularly managers. The basic management principles that apply to other service sectors also apply to health care, which is as particular as other service sectors about maximizing use of resources and making systems cost efficient.
In the past, most people who entered hospital management or grew into positions of responsibility in hospitals came with general degrees, and often moved up the hierarchy from junior executive or office management positions. Today, the field has gained a certain degree of professionalism, because of institutions such as the Indian Institute of Hospital Research and Management (Jaipur), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Symbiosis, and others. They prepare young people to not only administer hospitals, diagnostic centres, or rehabilitation institutes, but also how to deal with health finance and have input into health policy. Overall, the focus is on organisation, financing, marketing, and management of health care institutions and the delivery of personal health services. "These courses are putting out graduates who have a good understanding of both management and health care," says Lalitha." And I think it is these young people who are really going to make a difference to the industry, in terms of their professionalism and commitment."
Commitment is something that is needed in large measure in this field. Hospital management jobs do not fetch much money. On an average, after 15 years of service, a hospital manager may make as much as his counterpart in the consumer goods or infotech sector does in two or three years. "If you're looking for the big money, this is certainly not the field for you," emphasizes Lalitha. "You have to be very clear that this is what you want to do."
USHA RAMAN
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