Main Elements of Hospital Administration - Essay Example

Elements of Hospital Administration Introduction Hospital like any other business requires management which is performed by the hospital administration. Various groups of people in the management make up the administration. They include health services and medical managers who are sometimes called health care administrators and executives and their assistants. Hospital administrations are different and have various sizes. They perform multiple roles which vary based on the size and complexity of the hospital (Marquis, & Huston, 2009). In understanding the roles played by hospital administration, hospital administration elements such as planning, organizing, directing, and controlling should be considered. My experience at the hospital has helped me extensively understand the roles hospital administration plays. Planning Hospital as a health facility has goals to achieve and working within this facility gives one a challenge of achieving the intended purposes of the hospital. However, for these goals to be achieved, it is the hospital administration that involves in the entire process of planning. From its definition, planning involves forecasting, identifying and putting various activities together that are required to achieve goals (Marquis, & Huston, 2009). Working in hospital allowed me to understand that for the hospital to successfully accomplish these goals, it is essential for the hospital administration to involve every stakeholder. For the case of my workplace, the health care administrator in charge of allocating duties is considered the person behind planning. As a hospital, there are various goals that such an institution needs to accomplish ranging from offering quality services to the patients to ensuring that hospital runs and can make the profit. Since I was part of the hospital working as a healthy person, I had to take up my duties as assigned to me and ensured that patients get the quality services as expected by the administration. Everyone within their relevant departments was required to work alongside an identified team to ensure the work is accomplished as earlier planned. Through planning, the hospital administration ensures that employees receive the required skills and knowledge to carry out the duties. Through the process, I managed to increase my skills and knowledge to work in even complex areas where the management assigned us. One also gets to understand what is essential for the future of the institution and the clients, in this case, patients. Planning involves having all the affected parties in consideration and ensure that balance is achieved to ensure high-level performance is achieved. Through planning, various risks areas and challenges are identified and strategic options developed in a way that allows administrators and other workers within the hospital to address them. As employees, we also get equipped with means through which were address issues by planning. Organizing In management, organization involves the coordination of task goals and activities to resources to ensure that objectives of the hospital are achieved. Within the hospital, there are multiple elements we encounter that all need to be structured and integrated into useful resources. These elements include task goals and activities that the health workers need to carry out. The hospital administration has the role of ensuring that these activities and task goals are structured, integrated and coordinated into resources that will allow the hospital to attain the objectives. In my workplace, for instance, we encounter complex cases of different patients. As health workers, we must ensure that these cases are handled in line with our assigned tasks that facilitate quality care. The hospital administration comes in to organize in such a way that as employees, we integrate and work in a team by coordinating and ensuring that healthcare provision is smooth (Aiken, Clarke, & Sloane, 2002). The administration as well ensures that as workers, we are aware of the different systems, policies, and the right practices within the health facility. This involves the use of technology by the employees and other stakeholders as well as understanding the best practices. Through this role played by hospital administration, I have gained skills in applying the technology within the healthcare set up. At the same time, as stakeholders within the hospital, we are fully aware of the policies that apply within the healthcare, what we entail to achieve and how we need to achieve it. At the same time, the administration upon equipping employees with the task goals, employees become aware of the goals need to be achieved which then makes it easy for users to work in relevant groups performing different goals. Directing Hospital director is a facility administration executive who ensures that instructions are given, guiding and overseeing the workers’ performance in the hospital to ensure that identified goals are attained. Thus, this element of hospital administration focuses on the initiation of a required action within the hospital by providing relevant leadership and motivation of hospital workers (Kossaify, Rasputin, & Lahoud, 2013). In my department, we have the supervisor whom we work closely with whenever carrying out our duties especially those that are highly involved and that is complex. It has always been great to work alongside a director or supervisor who tells us about what to do. As a result, I have adjusted to working alone since upon giving the directions; I find it easy to follow them closely making it easy to perform duties with easy. The direction given by the hospital executive director has also facilitated the high level of confidence among the healthcare workers who find it is on the right track when performing various duties. For instance, through instructions and guidance given by our supervisor in our department, my confidence level of working has improved. Therefore, it is evident that health workers tend to perform better in a situation where there is the leadership of the hospital that can give proper directions. Controlling Another essential element of hospital administration that has been crucial in helping me understands the role played is controlling. In the hospital setup, controlling involves monitoring the activities of the staff as well as their performance to take up appropriate actions for the corrective purpose to improve on the performance. Controlling is a function carried out by the hospital administration and has been essential in helping me improve in the way of identifying multiple issues that arise out of my duties in the hospital. As a health employee, I can detect a problem and know the next course of action, and this has been facilitated by controlling. Therefore, hospital administrators through the process of controlling ensure that everything within the hospital set up runs smoothly and emerging issues addressed. This is possible since the process of controlling makes close observation of the health workers and how they carry out duties. It has also worked to improve our service delivery and accuracy in performance as health workers. Conclusion In conclusion, therefore, it is evident that hospital administration is at the center of the management of the hospital and the activities involved. The role played by the hospital administration has been critical in influencing my experience at the workplace. Planning, organizing, directing, and controlling are the hospital administration elements that have made it easier in understanding the roles the administration plays and how this affected my experience at my workplace. I have been able to learn how to work in groups, improved on my skills and knowledge besides developing understanding my work in the health care facility. References Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Sloane, D. M., & International Hospital Outcomes Research Consortium. (2002). Hospital staffing, organization, and quality of care: cross-national findings. International Journal for quality in Health care, 14(1), 5-14. Kossaify, A., Rasputin, B., & Lahoud, J. C. (2013). The function of a medical director in healthcare institutions: a master or a servant. Health services insights, 6, HSI-S13000. Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2009). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More