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Healthcare
sector foresees great demand for administrators
Usha Holla - Mumbai
 Hospital
administrators are in great demand. In fact, they are the
most sought-after professionals in the healthcare sector today
after doctors.
Thanks
to rapid corporatisation, a lot of medical graduates are taking
up further specialisation in hospital administration. Even
non-medical professionals are increasingly taking the mantle
of hospital administration. According to consulting and recruiting
firm Hosmac, roughly 300 students are imparted training in
hospital administration and healthcare management every year
through 16 recognised institutes across the country. Around
90 per cent of them are readily absorbed by hospitals.
The
trend of recruiting business managers and not essentially
a practising medical professional was initiated by corporate
hospitals. Now, even trust-based hospitals are following suit
and experts point out that it is a matter of time before government
hospitals too adopt the practice.
Premier
institutes running courses for hospital administration and
healthcare management across the country vouch that it was
never so good for their students what with various health
organisations now making a beeline at campus interviews. ‘‘It
is mainly the corporate and trust hospitals which are recruiting
professionals to manage their administrative operations,’’
says Dr C A K Yesudian, head Dept. of Health Services Studies,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. A top favourite
among healthcare recruiters, TISS had nearly 90 per cent of
its students taken up within three days of its week-long placement
programme held in January 2002.
According
to Dr S V N Reddy, principal Apollo Institute of Hospital
Administration (AIHA), Hyderabad, it is not only hospitals
which require management pros. “A whole lot of specialised
avenues such as lifestyle clinics, emergency medicine units,
pharmaceutical firms, hospital information systems, e-health
ventures, credit rating firms, NGOs and health insurance now
require trained manpower specialised in hospital administration.”
The
remuneration packages offered to fresh graduates is attractive.
“A management level cadre earns anywhere between Rs 2.5-3
lakh per annum, while middle and lower level cadre earn between
Rs 2-2.5 lakh,’’ says Dr Yesudian. That’s certainly
good money for greenhorns when
compared with remuneration offered in other industries.
Freshers
should focus more on gaining practical knowledge at the workplace
than dreaming big salary packages, feels Dr Satish Ratnaparkhi,
directorGarware Institute of Career Education and Development.
The institute is one of the recent entrants into healthcare
management education arena with its first batch of students
to pass out in June 2002.
Sensing
better opportunities in this sector, more and more people
from non-medical background are now enrolling for healthcare
management and administration courses. In fact, a majority
of students at the Indian Institute of Health Management and
Research (IIHMR), Jaipur belong to non-medical category, sources
point out. “Managers with a medical background command
higher price in the market,” confirms Dr Reddy. Even
though the industry has a preference for such people, non-medicos
are putting a brave face on it. ‘‘Having a medical
background definitely helps in better understanding of the
hospital environment initially, but even non-medico can excel
as what matters ultimately is how good are your managerial
skills,’’ says an MBA aspiring to be a hospital
administrator.
Institutes
conducting these courses are particular about one aspect making
necessary modifications in the syllabus as per the requirements
of the healthcare industry. ‘‘Therefore now we are
emphasising more on topics like IT, quality and finance management
in our syllabi,’’ Dr Yesudian says. He further explained
that besides theory and internship at hospitals, a special
five-week course has now been added at TISS wherein students
visit emerging areas like healthcare consultancy firms and
TPAs.
Apollo
Institute has revised its syllabus for the third time recently.
Says Dr Reddy, ‘‘Since our institute is affiliated
to Osmania University, we are awaiting their approval. The
revised syllabus contains many new thrust areas like health
insurance, entrepreneurship development, waste management,
disaster management, supply chain management, customer relationship
management, HIS to name a few.’’ According to Dr
Ratnaparkhi, bringing in certain upgradation in the syllabus
at least once in three years is essential.
The
industry too seems to be upbeat with the availability of efficient
manpower to handle managerial tasks in healthcare services.
Says Anil V Kamath, VP-business development, Wockhardt Hospitals
Ltd., ‘‘There is a growing demand for managers in
the healthcare sector due to increasing professionalisation
of services. And the huge demand-supply gap in this segment
is opening better avenues for freshers.’’ He further
noted that as a majority of professionals today are first
level managers, 4-5 years down the line, the industry would
benefit from strong force of well-experienced managers.
‘‘Grading
of healthcare institutions is an area with lot of excitement
and challenges for healthcare managers and they can learn
newer concepts here,’’ says Arun Panicker, director
- Corporate Ratings, Crisil.
Rating
agencies like Crisil and Icra have absorbed many freshers
in the recent past as healthcare consultants. Panicker admitted
that interns as well as freshers were of great help during
the company’s grading process. ‘‘Moreover an
administrator or a manager gets to do those assignments in
this segment that are not typical of their conventional role,’’
he added.
According
to George Mathew Molakal, MD ICAN Medicare Pvt Ltd, a Pune-based
TPA, doctors and administrators/managers form a crucial link
in TPA operations. They can be assigned tasks like gate keeping
functions, claim audit - technical evaluations, claim investigations,
etc. ‘‘ICAN has employed several hospital administration
staff in its processing centers across India. They are highly
necessary for each and every TPA,’’ Molakal says.
To
bridge the huge demand-supply gap in the professional management
segment, experts feel that more teaching facilities should
be set up. And that explains the reason behind dubious hospital
administration and healthcare management courses being floated
by some institutes in the recent past. Dr Yesudian says that
hospitals are very choosy about the kind of people they want
to recruit and the quality will separate wheat from chaff.
‘‘The
market is wise enough to recognise the right candidates. Therefore
dubious programmes will die a natural death in due course
of time,’’ Dr Ratnaparkhi opined.
According
to a survey by the Association of British Healthcare Industries
(ABHI) in early 2000, there are over 15,000 hospitals in India.
And more numbers are frequently being added up indicating
that there is a tremendous opportunity for administrators
in hospital sector alone for years to come not to mention
related areas. Therefore it is the right time to take a plunge
into the healthcare administration and management arena.
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