The Complete Guide to Becoming A Medical and Health Services Manager

Chapter 1: What Does a Medical and Health Services Manager Actually Do?

Imagine you are the person responsible for making sure a clinic or a hospital department runs smoothly. Not just the medical care — that's the doctors' and nurses' job. You're responsible for everything that has to happen around that care: the schedules, the budgets, the paperwork, the staffing, the equipment, the regulations, and the constant stream of problems that spring up when you're dealing with sick people, tired staff, and insurance companies. That's the life of a Medical and Health Services Manager. It's a job that's equal parts business, human relations, and crisis management.

Let me walk you through what the role actually involves, because the job title covers a wide range of positions. You could be managing a small physician's office with a handful of employees, or you could be running a department of a large hospital with hundreds of staff and a budget in the tens of millions. You could be working for a nursing home, a mental health clinic, a physical therapy practice, or a health insurance company. The settings are different, but the core responsibilities are remarkably consistent. This is the work you'll be doing:

Core Responsibility #1: Managing Money and Budgets

The first thing to understand is that you are, at your core, a financial manager. Your employer is in the business of providing care, but the care isn't free, and your job is to make sure the finances work. That means you