5 Critical Skills for Healthcare Administration

5 Critical Skills for Healthcare Administration 

Whether it be a hospital, dental practice, pharmacy, nursing home, or elsewhere, every healthcare office needs administration services. Healthcare administration positions can range from the CEO to the medical office administrative. Regardless of position, healthcare administration is accompanied by its own unique skillset and any smoothly running operation will have a solid administrative staff. Here are some of the most important hard and soft skills in healthcare administration:

1. Leadership

Leadership is an important skill to have in your toolkit in nearly every industry, and this rings true for healthcare administration professionals as well. Having strong leadership skills will greatly help you not only in day-to-day operations, but also to help you in the long term when advancing your career. Companies will be more likely to promote you if they feel you are a leader. In healthcare administration, you will likely have many staff members looking to you for: 

• Schedules 

• Policies Creation 

• Crises management 

• Vision to successfully move forward 

• Building Procedures 

• Budgets 

• Hiring 

• Human Resources 

• Patient Experience Management 

• Support Staff 

• Oversee Regulations 

It’s important that you have solid Leadership skills in healthcare administration. This will help keep the staff happy and make your role easier in the long run. No matter what environment you’re placed in, your leadership abilities could mean the difference between success and failure.

2. Problem Solving 

Problem-solving is another healthcare administration skill you’ll need in order to be successful. Especially in medical practices, you are going to have new issues arise all the time each and every day. It’s important to not only be able to resolve issues quickly but to prevent them from occurring in the future. The ability to develop strategies for these recurring issues will be crucial. An important aspect of your healthcare administration job role will be managing patient experiences. It may be common that you receive patient feedback that is negative. When that happens, you need good problem-solving skills to resolve any issues. You want to handle situations with ease. Get creative! You never know where you might find that key to success. Problem-solving is a great hard skill for healthcare administration. 

3. Business 

Healthcare professionals and staff needs business skills in addition to patient care skills. At the end of the day, healthcare is a business that you need to run. You have products, services, and financial goals. It will be your responsibility to handle the business aspect and thus a good idea to know the technical business side of things. Having business skills could include: 

• Financial Knowledge 

• Public Relations 

• Liaise and Consult 

• Ordering Products 

• Understanding Regulatory impact 

4. Technology  

Another essential skill with healthcare administration is being technologically savvy. You likely will be required to use computer systems and programs that other industries don’t use. Make sure you have technical skills for healthcare administration. It is helpful to be adaptable to technology and have a good understanding of systems. You may have to learn new systems quickly so it’s helpful to have a baseline of knowledge. Your role may depend on your technical skills for healthcare administration.  

5. Communication 

In roles where you have healthcare services administration responsibilities, you will be working with nearly, if not all, departments within your business, so good communication skills are very important to have. You’ll need to master both verbal and written forms of communication skills in order to be successful. Some examples of important communication skills include: 

• Listening 

• Nonverbal 

• Clarity and Concision 

• Friendliness 

• Confidence 

• Empathy 

• Open-Mindedness 

• Respect 

• Picking the Right Medium 

Effective communication skills in healthcare administration can be demonstrated in many ways and will get you a long way. For example, it may be helpful to keep a record of what is said in meetings to help prevent miscommunications, your team will thank you in the future. Additionally, you should have resources available with information regarding upcoming projects and changes. This will help the communication flow between you and the staff.  

Putting Your Skills to Work

Utilizing your skills in the workplace will give you a competitive lead amongst your peers. Working in a role that impacts health care services is crucial to any medical healthcare facility. A great way to build the skills needed is via education. Earning a master’s in healthcare administration will provide you with the skills needed for healthcare management needed to build a successful career. Students who take classes tailored for health service administration will be better equipped for a life in the industry. Going back to school to earn a master’s degree can help you to develop the necessary healthcare administration skills you’ll need to advance your career and improve your post-graduation opportunities.