Hospital and medical care, in general, is one of the fastest-growing industries in India. We are always facing a problem of not enough resources to treat the sheer number of patients that flood the gates of the hospitals every day. Even with the ongoing situation with COVID-19 pandemic, we have just over 40 thousand ventilators for a population of 1.35 billion plus people and that itself is alarming enough for the government to start investing more in the hospital industry.
It is forecasted to increase from a 4 trillion American Dollar evaluation to over double its value, 8.6 trillion dollars by the financial year of 2022- which isn’t all that far in the future. Needless to say, with all this growth and the enormous task that is handling the health-care for such a large population, effective management is the need of the hour. So Hospital Management jobs are being created with every passing day and the time is ripe if someone is looking to make a career out of it.
Hospital Management is a fairly new stream of management, wherein the old days a senior doctor was handed the responsibility of running a hospital and keeping things in order; now professionals are being trained and prepared for the more peculiar parts of the job in the medical field. Even hospitals are general, specialized and super-specialized in terms of the treatment they offer and they require an equivalent amount of skilled management to keep operating with no hindrances- lives are at stake here, literally. These professionals aren’t necessarily from a medical background.
Even a Non-science or Non-medical background or even a non-technical background candidate can land a job in hospital management if he or she possesses the relevant management skills alone. Although, it is reasonable to assume someone with a medical background can understand the nuances and delicacies of the problems that may arise in a hospital better.
Short term distance learning courses and full-fledged diploma courses are now being offered in hospital management by many institutions in India. Even the Indian Society of Health Administrators offers a year-long course in Hospital and Nurse administration. Some places are starting to offer standard two year MBA courses in Hospital Management but it isn’t widely available yet. A bachelor’s or diploma would cost lump sum 40 thousand Indian rupees per annum for a three-year course while a Master’s degree costs the same for a two-year course or distance learning program. Depending on the institution and your own particulars, scholarships and fee waivers are dished out as in any other graduate and postgraduate course.
Knowledge of finance and info systems, Remarkable leadership skills, Communication and Organizational skills, Approachable demeanor, the ability to perform under high anxiety and stress-inducing workspace, ability to handle deadlines, Efficient decision-making, Patience and level-headedness- are some of the chief qualities of not only a health care professional but a manager or an administrator in a hospital. Lacking any of these skills will make for a lapse in the judgment in crucial decisions for the hospital and possibly even the lives of some of the patients involved.
Deans and Directors of Medical Colleges, Hospital Superintendents, Deputy Superintendents, Medical Directors, Nursing Directors, Heads of Departments, Administrators, Healthcare Finance Managers, etc. are some of the most well-known job profiles in this stream of management. While the salary is anywhere from 30 to 50 thousand rupees per month for an entry-level job- it scales to higher salary packages with both size of the hospital and the individual candidate’s own work experience in the relevant field.
With a starting salary anywhere between 3 to, 6 LPA; a job that is surely demanding but is equally crucial and contributes to saving lives that are otherwise in danger and most importantly in an industry whose future is beaming bright- Hospital Management Jobs are surely a good catch.
Work in Hospital management industry outside India is even more lucrative, even medical insurance firms and nursing homes are hiring managers to handle the workload and salaries are quadruple or even 8-10 times of what is currently being offered in India- with that said, career prospects of hospital management are great.
