Healthcare - A Highly Complex Foundation, Management and Organisation

Healthcare is not only vast but rather a very complex field. It consists of various networks and various departments. A healthcare establishment may range from a small private clinic to a large multi-departmental or multi-specialty healthcare organization. From the patient records and finances, all the way through the physician and treatment procedure management requires a thorough planning, analysis, and strategy.

The healthcare is so complex that every department has a supervisory chain of managers that governs and develops the respective department. It requires quality input and depends on a large number of highly trained personnel.

The very foundation of any healthcare organization are the Stakeholders, Employees, Traders, and Patients. Without either of them, the organization would face difficulty in functioning and can even cease to exist.

The Stakeholders provide investment and provide developmental support and in pursuing and reaching the goal set by the health organization. They encourage the development of high standard technology and medical devices for use in Healthcare.

Employees are the main providers of services and provide care, support and population health development. They are also responsible for providing a better and quality care experience for the Patients.

Traders and suppliers provide materials required for the care and treatment of the patients. Majority of the organization's finance is mostly spent on these medical products.

Patients are those who seek expert medical advice and treatment as well as receive care from medical professionals.

Healthcare is often related to the tip of an iceberg. The facilities, services, and experiences provided are only the most superficial aspects and are represented by the small visible tip of the iceberg.

To experience good services, there are various activities that are unseen and mostly take place in the background. If you look in deeper, cooperation and communication between various departments and the supply of medical materials and equipment for the respective treatment, the number of medical professionals and nurses involved and the decision of higher authorities are all in motion here. This is represented by the remaining larger submerged portion of the iceberg.

As Healthcare is very dynamic, the managers are required to motivate the workforce. They have the enormous task of running a part of the department both at the employee level and at the managerial level.

At the Employee level, because they have to influence, monitor, improve working conditions in order to make individuals feel motivated to work towards attaining the set goals. Here they could also promote changes to the routine which are in alignment with the goal and mission of the organization and also help the employees cope with the change.

Managers also have the duty at the managerial level where they have the responsibility of reporting the various departmental developments to the higher authorities of management.

As mentioned before, Healthcare is a very vast and coordination between different departments and maintaining networks is highly recommended to avoid errors.

The management level of Healthcare has its branches extending into various departments. These include:

1. Finance - as with all business firms, Health organizations rely heavily on financial management. Their function is to manage finance and risk in order to reach their goal.

2. Information Technology (IT) - includes the use and sharing or entering patient data for use by the medical professions.

3. Marketing - this is one of the most recent additions to Healthcare. In the past, this was one business area where one would not find a marketing manager. But due to fast-changing health policies and the development of organizational trends and behaviors, the importance of marketing has been realized. It is required to approach the audience from a whole different perspective.

4. Strategy management - an important area which helps in strategizing according to the data provided. They analyze data, plan the next move and monitor the growth of the organization.

5. Purchase and Quality management - deals with the purchase and supply of medical items. They are also responsible for the quality of the items and whether they meet the requirements as stated by the Quality Assurance Agency in the respective country.

6. Human resources - deals with recruiting, retaining and development of talented and competent personnel. They are also in charge of holding Continuous Education Programs for employee development and motivation.

7. Account department - otherwise known as the billing area. Also where the in-patients and out-patients are registered.

In the Healthcare organization, maintaining a manual or hand-written patient health records or files are a thing of the past. Now the new era- the Digital Era, has advanced which supports the medical and non-medical professionals to easily maintain patient records. Use of computers in Healthcare have developed and evolved over the years. Medicine information and other prescriptions are now directly sent to pharmacies via computers after specialist consultation and which also helps in easier administration of these medicines.

Advanced robotic medical equipment that can assist with surgical procedures are being developed and tested. Incorporation and testing of robots in certain areas like medical transportation, disinfection robots, rehabilitation robots and robotic prescription of drugs are still underway.

Medical Apps that provide an immediate diagnosis without the patient having to meet the physician are also still underway. Although how successful it would turn out to be is still a question.