Introduction
Healthcare managers play a great role in supporting the day-to-day running of activities in their respective units. They take many responsibilities including coordinating, planning, and directing practitioners, groups, and departments. Managers serve in diverse hospital settings including specialized clinical areas and human resources. To achieve their objectives, they are expected to collaborate across disciplines, support talent development, as well as manage finances and budget. Moreover, they address the needs of the medical team and develop strategies to support the achievement of business operations (Guo, 2020). Healthcare management’s scope tends to change based on the level of authority, responsibilities, and activities of the unit. This paper intends to describe the different functions of healthcare managers including planning, organizing, staffing, controlling, directing, and forecasting, and maintaining their high performance.
Planning
Healthcare managers are expected to develop a detailed action plan to facilitate the achievement of the goals, provision of quality services to patients, and the accomplishment of the ultimate organizational goals. The planning process should focus on enhancing day-to-day activities towards the achievement of both short-term and long-term goals (Guo, 2020). The process is an ongoing step that varies depending on the organizational, division, and team goals. Managers are required to consider priority and urgent activities and prioritize them before others.
Organizing
Organizing involves the determination of how resources should be distributed and workers managed based on the plan. It involves defining the amount of work to be done and the distribution of resources to support the achievement of targets (Dunn, 2021). The function comes with many activities including assigning work, delegating authority, and offering direction to juniors. They offer guidance that enables everyone to understand their requirements and work hard towards the achievement of the ultimate organizational goals.
Staffing
Heath managers are involved in the employment and motivation of workers to facilitate the smooth flow of activities. The staffing process has many steps including recruitment, training, selection, orientation, and development. They coordinate with the Human Resource (HR) manager to identify the required skills, qualifications, and experience of workers to be recruited (Dunn, 2021). They are involved in the interviewing of new employees to ensure that the best candidates are selected. Healthcare managers train and motivate new workers to ensure that they develop the necessary skills to accomplish the assigned tasks. Moreover, these managers are expected to create a favorable environment and motivate workers to show commitment
Leading
Managers are expected to become role models for their juniors and inspire them to become more committed and determined. Leading others entails communicating, motivating, encouraging, influencing, and guiding others. This means that managers should assist those requiring support and solve problems affecting workers (Guo, 2020). They should offer coaching services to place everyone in a better position to complete duties efficiently. Moreover, managers should encourage workers to communicate and raise issues affecting them. This would help provide beneficial information and point out necessary changes to be made.
Controlling
Managers are expected to monitor attained results against the expected or standard outcome to determine the progress. They are required to check on the activities of workers and appraise their performance. Employees who are achieving their targets and accomplishing their assigned tasks in the best way are usually motivated to keep on working hard. Poor-performing workers are supported through the identification of areas requiring improvement and offering training to promote their potential. Moreover, managers ensure that every system is functioning properly and efficiently to support the achievement of set objectives. Controlling functions enable managers to take corrective actions when planned activities are not achieved.
Directing and Forecasting
Managers are expected to make sound decisions and offer direction for others should follow. They should use historical data to understand the past and compare it with the present situation to determine what will happen in the future. Forecasting can enable them to learn where to allocate more resources and plan for anticipated expenses. For instance, a manager can forecast projected demand services and influence the allocation of funds to support future activities. Health managers extrapolate upcoming trends that influence organizational performance and the economy (Guo, 2020). Accurate forecasting supports the making of informed decisions and plays a role in the elimination of success obstacles and losses. Managers can foresee that incidences of certain nature will increase in the future and encourage investment in equipment that would be required to cope with the situation.
Ensuring High Performance
Healthcare managers can ensure high performance in their business units by measuring staff engagement and supporting the development of strong teams. They should pay attention to issues affecting their juniors and apply engagement data to enhance individual performance. Performance-driven management tends to promote positive outcomes by handling engagement appropriately and actively (Greenhalgh et al., 2018). This enables them to identify weak areas that need improvement and make an effort to achieve the best patient care and outcome.
Staff motivation and training can help healthcare managers achieve high performance in their business units. Educating staff can ensure that they understand their roles, assigned duties, and the task to be completed. Moreover, it is necessary to provide the necessary resources to support staff and motivate them to work hard and remain focused. Healthcare managers should show staff that the organization is concerned about issues affecting them and it is determined to offer a solution. Involving staff during the decision-making process can influence them to feel like part of the organization and gain interest in the achievement of the set objectives (Guo, 2020). This helps staff to feel important and do what is possible to influence success.
The embracement of innovative ideas and application of better technologies can help enable healthcare managers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their unit activities. The use of the internet can come with improvement of efficiency in many aspects including sharing of information, communication, and positive interactions. It can improve the ability of professionals to discuss issues affecting patients and support the making of appropriate and informed decisions (Greenhalgh et al., 2018). On the other hand, technology can improve the ability of managers to monitor the activities of juniors and ensure that they remain focused.
Conclusion
Managers play important roles that determine the success of a healthcare facility. They support effective management of the available resources, plan, and coordinate staff to influence the achievement of organizational goals. Different managers serve diverse roles to support their units and enable the provision of quality health care, reduction of operating costs, provision of a favorable working environment and promote hard work. They should establish measures to ensure that high productivity is maintained in every activity. This can be achieved by educating and motivating staff and implementing technology to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
References
Dunn, R. (2021). Dunn and Haimann’s healthcare management (11th ed). Health Administration Press.
Greenhalgh, J., Dalkin, S., Gibbons, E., Wright, J., Valderas, J. M., Meads, D., & Black, N. (2018). How do aggregated patient-reported outcome measures data stimulate health care improvement? A realist synthesis. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 23(1), 57-65. Web.
Guo, K. L. (2020). DECIDE A decision-making model for more effective decision-making by health care managers. The Health Care Manager, 39(3), 133-141. Web.