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Medical Administration is vital to the proper functioning of hospitals, practices and clinics. It involves customer service, allocation of appointments, budgeting and resource management, record-keeping and other processes which support patient medical care. Medical Administration is fundamental to public policy planning and health service governance and delivery. It often involves multi-factorial and high-risk decision making, and leadership which demands both clinical and management competencies. Medical Administration incorporates health law, health economics, human resource management, policy development, management systems and strategy, and service design. It seeks to encourage collaboration, identify effective clinical outcomes, and implement quality improvements, which may involve seeking and analysing information from a variety of medical specialties to make decisions which benefit the health service and health service delivery in general. There are numerous challenges in this area of health care, which include: stakeholder conflicts of interest, bureaucratisation of clinical practice, centralisation of health service management, separation of management from frontline workers, and a lack of clinical training among health service managers.

Administration of health care services is provided by a range of clinical and non-clinical staff with varying levels of accountability and responsibility, who work together to help efficiently and safely delivery health care services to patients.

Medical Administration Jobs

Administrators (General, non-clinical) work in hospitals or health care services and apply their knowledge of medical terminology to patient records and data keeping systems. They help ensure the process of appointment, diagnosis and treatment management runs smoothly. Administration staff book patient appointments, check patients in, provide customer service, undertake data entry, handle complaints and enquiries, pay bills and process payments, upkeep the office space, compile records and charts of patient history and ongoing treatment, and communicate any important information to medical staff. Non-clinical administrative roles in the health care industry are available to professionals with management skills, and experience in procurement, human resources, finance, risk management, governance, organisational systems and health information management.

Medical Administrators are senior doctors who have extensive experience in clinical medicine and hospital administration. These roles are among the highest administrative positions of the organisation, often only overseen by the management board. Medical Administrators, such as CEOs, Chief Health Consultants and Officers, and Medical Directors, have serious supervisory and operational responsibilities. They oversee, and are accountable for, the clinical, professional and financial performance of the department/organisation, and the delivery of high quality, effective and efficient patient care. They use their clinical training and experience together with medical management expertise, to lead and influence health service delivery and manage complex health organisations. They may be responsible for human resource management, fiscal management, recruiting and credentialing, implementation of governance frameworks and accreditation, attending board meetings, coordinating interdepartmental functions; and developing, monitoring and evaluating the protocols and guidelines for clinical staff. Doctors in this role require excellent communication and interpersonal skills; a thorough understanding of organisational systems, processes and interdependencies; and need to work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders and specialists. Roles in Medical Administration include senior management positions such as Chief Medical Officers, Directors of Medical Services, Heads of health authorities, Chief executives of hospitals and universities, Chief health officers of government jurisdictions and Consultants to governments and private sector health services.