Healthcare organization management has a direct impact on patient outcomes, and entering the field requires a strong educational background....
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for medical services managers are expected to grow by 28% in the coming decade. This is high compared to other healthcare occupations, and it demonstrates the ongoing need for good managers in the industry.
Senior managers who are considering joining healthcare management can enroll in a Doctor of Organizational Leadership program like the one offered by Marymount University. For many, the first question that comes to mind is what you can do with a Doctorate of Organizational Leadership. It is a common assumption that those who hold doctorates go into teaching, but this is not always the case. Many also go into senior management, and healthcare has benefitted from professionals who have this type of qualification. The program at Marymount covers topics such as ethical leadership, professional collaboration, community engagement and adaptability in the face of changing healthcare practices. Students also learn cultural competence, which helps them deal with people of different backgrounds, and they also learn decisiveness, which is an important leadership skill.
Doctorate programs require a significant commitment on the part of the student, but online programs can make it easier to fit studies around other responsibilities. For anyone who plans to join senior management in healthcare, a course like a doctorate of organizational leadership will not just give you the skills you need to lead a healthcare organization, but it also provides the edge that employers are looking for.
However, it is important to familiarize yourself with different aspects of healthcare leadership. What is it, why is it important, and how does it impact the quality of care and workplace satisfaction among healthcare workers?
What is healthcare leadership?
Healthcare leadership is not very different from any other kind of leadership. It is seen when a member of a healthcare organization or facility uses their professional skills, experience and qualities to lead or direct a team. A healthcare leader can be in charge of a small team, such as a department or a group of nurses, or they can play a bigger role and lead several departments or even the whole facility.
Healthcare leadership isn’t always easy. Coordinating all the activities that take place in a healthcare facility is complex, and these jobs require specialist training, plenty of experience and certain personality traits. A doctorate of organizational leadership will impart the technical skills you need for the job, but you also need to be a detail-oriented individual with excellent time management skills. You should also be the type of person who others can rally around, and you must be approachable and easy to talk to.
Here is a look at the difference it makes to have a good administrator at the helm of a healthcare
organization. How does it affect patient outcomes, and what effect does it have on hospital staff?
How good healthcare management affects patient outcomes
Several qualities distinguish well-managed hospitals and clinics from those that do not have good leadership.
They have lower readmission rates
No one likes to have to go to the hospital multiple times to treat an illness, and well-run facilities make an effort to reduce their rate of readmission. Doctors and nurses try their best to provide effective, lasting treatments so patients don’t have to come back.
Readmission is expensive for both the patient and the hospital. Each time a patient has to come back, the hospital commits additional resources to provide treatment, and the patient has to pay for each readmission.
Unless one suffers from a chronic illness, it is an unnecessary drain on resources. Good hospital managers ensure that they hire highly qualified staff who aim to treat patients as effectively and efficiently as possible because they understand the correlation between resources and readmission.
Doctors and nurses are patient advocates
When hospital staff members advocate for patients, they put them in a positive frame of mind, and they heal faster and consume fewer hospital resources. Nothing is more disconcerting to a patient than finding out that a doctor or a nurse carried out a procedure or a test that isn’t covered by their insurer. It means they have to pay out of pocket, and for the average person, it is an additional expense they would prefer to avoid. For this reason, good communication is vital.
Patients who feel that they are in the hands of doctors and nurses who care tend to have shorter healing periods, and they can walk away from the facility knowing that they have been properly treated. In poorly run hospitals, some patients may stay longer than they should because they don’t trust that they have received the right treatment and will be alright when they are discharged. Good managers emphasize the importance of patient advocacy because it has a direct impact not just on the facility, but on patient outcomes and their confidence in the hospital or clinic.
There are better patient outcomes overall
Treatment facilities exist to aid healing and make sure every patient achieves the best outcome possible.
Patients who are admitted to well-managed hospitals – and even those who just visit the emergency room for a minor ailment – report higher levels of satisfaction than those who are in facilities that aren’t well-run.
They don’t have to wait long before they can see a doctor, and they are triaged as soon as they arrive in the ER. Their doctors and nurses take the time to talk to them and find out what ails them, in addition to learning more about their lifestyle and what the root cause of the illness could be.
Patients who are well-handled tend to recover faster than those who aren’t. There has been a shift toward patient-centered care in recent years, which involves making sure that patients are informed of what the medical staff are doing and that their opinions regarding their treatment are welcomed. This type of open communication puts patients in a positive frame of mind, and they tend to report better outcomes.
There are fewer deaths
One of the biggest problems in poorly managed healthcare facilities is the number of deaths that occur that could otherwise have been prevented. There are several reasons patients may die despite not having a fatal condition, including overworked staff, poor management, and a shortage of necessary medications and equipment.
Hospital management can be evaluated by considering the number of people who die in a given period and their cause of death. While it is completely natural for some patients to die while undergoing treatment, excessive deaths, especially preventable ones, are a sign that hospital management needs to look at how their practices are affecting mortality rates.
How good healthcare management affects hospital staff
Doctors, nurses and other professionals who work in well-managed facilities tend to feel better about what they do, and this has a direct impact on how they perform their job and the results they achieve.
Here are some of the ways that good management affects hospital staff.
They are highly motivated
Doctors, nurses and others who work for good managers are highly motivated and do everything they can to help their patients. They put in extra hours and will go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure their patients have everything they need to aid in quick recovery.
There is a healthy culture within the facility
Workplace culture is becoming ever more important, and healthcare facilities have embraced it because it helps improve patient outcomes. A healthy workplace culture fosters cooperation, and doctors and nurses work together regardless of their background, country of origin, culture or whatever other differences may exist.
Good managers take the time to make sure that all hospital staff can communicate openly without discrimination and bias, and they frequently bring employees together for team-building activities so they can bond. Staff are encouraged to learn about other cultures because the more they know, the easier it is for them to understand others and cooperate with them.
Staff report lower stress levels
Hospitals are busy places, and the people who work in them often experience long days. They may have to work double or triple shifts, and stress levels tend to be higher than in other professions. Good healthcare managers understand that if they do not help their employees relax and de-stress, care will suffer. They take the health and wellbeing of doctors, nurses and other professionals who work for them as seriously as they take all other aspects of healthcare management.
A good manager makes sure that duty rosters are carefully considered to give each person enough time to rest between shifts, and they also give their employees yearly leave and holidays to be with their families and friends. They also counsel staff about the value of relaxation, and they are on the lookout for signs of stress and burnout. If they notice these signs in their employees, they have strategies in place to help them and they follow up to make sure that they are fit for duty once again.
A good manager also understands that the emotional health of their employees is vital. They are exposed to challenging situations and often deal with people when they are at their lowest; many of them are critically ill and some of them die. Over time, this can take a toll on one’s mental health, and it requires careful management.
Employees are equipped with skills and techniques to help them cope, and management encourages them to spend time with family and friends, take up hobbies, and incorporate exercise into their routines to help with relaxation.
Employees tend to be better educated
One of the roles of senior management is to ensure that employees continually improve themselves by gaining more education. They encourage employees to go back to school so they can earn higher degrees, and they help rearrange their schedules to make time for learning. When nurses and doctors receive additional qualifications, they are promoted and given more responsibilities, and they are properly rewarded for self-improvement.
Personal care teams are cohesive
As medicine moves toward patient-centered care, care teams have become commonplace, especially for chronically ill patients. In many medical facilities in America, different medical professionals come together in teams to bring their expertise into creating and implementing treatment plans.
It is important to have cohesion and open communication within these teams. Each professional must be able to contribute their expertise openly for the good of the patient, and the rest of the team should be ready to listen to them. Good managers ensure that all teams work well together, and they seek feedback from the team as well as the individual professionals who make up each team.
It is easy to determine whether teams are effective by looking at the level of patient satisfaction and the number of positive outcomes.
What soft skills are necessary in organization management?
Organization management isn’t the same as running a business. It tends to be more complex because there are lots of moving parts, and unlike businesses that close at the end of the day, healthcare facilities run 24 hours a day, every day of the year. It is therefore important that those who aspire to become organizational managers possess certain soft skills.
They should be great with the details
Nothing can fall through the cracks because if it does, it could have serious consequences. Organizational managers must be able to keep their eye on all the moving parts, and they should be able to keep up with events as they unfold. Things can change in an instant in an ER, and a good manager should be able to provide the necessary leadership to cope with whatever crisis the hospital is facing on any given day.
They are servant leaders and motivators
Good leaders can get people to rally behind them and deliver their vision. They are easy to talk to, they inspire employees to do whatever is necessary to help patients, and they listen to feedback and opinions from everyone who works for them. Some of the best hospitals in the United States are run by managers who can be identified as servant leaders. They are not there to impose their will but to serve those who work for them and provide the right environment for them to perform their jobs. Servant leaders don’t tell their employees what to do; instead, they listen to them and only provide guidance, motivation and leadership.
They see the big picture
Any organizational manager should have the ability to see the big picture. It is good to fight from the trenches every day, but a good manager understands their role at the top of the organization.
For example, they can see the overall financial position of the organization and the role that their facility plays in the community, their town and their region at large.
Good organizational managers are excellent communicators
It is the job of the manager to communicate with people at all levels. They should be able to communicate with the board of directors and other high-level stakeholders, doctors, nurses and other professionals at their facility. Good managers should also have a rapport with those who are further down the chain, such as cooks and janitors, because they keep everything moving smoothly.
Oral communication isn’t enough. They also have to know how to write detailed reports about various aspects of their organization.
They are great mentors
A good manager understands the value of mentorship, and they take the time to learn how to become great mentors themselves. Mentorship is about preparing the next generation of leaders, and in healthcare, mentors play a vital role in ensuring smooth transitions. A good organizational manager will not try to do all the mentorship themselves. Instead, they will recruit a network of mentors who work with young doctors and nurses to make sure that they make the most of their careers.
Good healthcare depends on solid organizational management
Organizational management is vital in healthcare because it helps large, complex facilities run smoothly, achieve positive patient outcomes and maintain healthy and happy employees. Enrolling in a Doctorate of Organizational Leadership helps impart the technical skills that are needed for leadership, but you must also take some time to cultivate the necessary soft skills to succeed in this field.
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