Chapter 8: Healthcare Administration and Informatics
Katie Baker
Clinical directors, also sometimes called clinical supervisors or managers, are responsible for organizing the medical professionals in a clinical facility. This is not the same as the manager who controls the daily business aspect of a healthcare organization (see below). Instead, they are responsible for guiding their healthcare team to fulfill the mission and vision of the organization. In a smaller organization, the directors may step in where necessary to provide support to office managers and the running of the clinic. In larger organizations, such as hospitals, clinical directors are usually responsible for one particular department, such as obstetrics, pediatrics, or outpatient surgery.
As a clinical director, your responsibilities will include management of employees and tasks such as hiring, firing, training and monitoring staff will be a primary responsibility of this job. When monitoring clinical staff such as nurses, you must ensure that they are compliant with laws, continuing education requirements and training rules as well as unit and hospital rules. In addition to employee management, clinical directors are required to develop budgets, staff schedules, and coordinate with other departments in myriad projects and programs.
In contrast with the clinical director, an office manager will be responsible for running the clinic including supervision of patient services representatives, medical records clerks, and billing and coding specialists. Office managers may be responsible for accounts receivable as well as accounts payable end smaller offices. Public relations, advertising and marketing campaigns, and patient outreach may also fall within the purview of the office manager, depending on the size of the organization for which they work. They may devise and Implement patient incentive programs, employee training programs, and the adoption of electronic health records as well. Essentially, anything that the manager of a small business would do is something that an office manager of a small clinic would also be responsible for completing.
Possibilities in the Field of Clinical Direction and Office Management
There are many possibilities in the field of management or directorship, all of which will require a strong sense of responsibility, self direction and the ability to develop relationships with coworkers and supervisors. Leadership skills such as communication, commitment, and the ability to delegate tasks are very helpful in these roles. Many of these skills and attributes can be developed through workshops and seminars if they are not currently your strong suit. An entire industry exists to help support your goals of becoming a leader in healthcare.
As mentioned before, clinical directors may be part of a smaller group practice or may be responsible for a single department within a hospital or healthcare facility (or multiple related departments). In the case of working with a larger facility, employees in these positions may be called department directors instead of clinical directors.
A clinical director position can be obtained with a bachelor’s degree, however many employers now prefer to hire someone with a master’s degree. For example, a master’s degree in healthcare administration is a common degree held by clinical directors in the US.
Office managers, on the other hand, may enter the field without any degree or may have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in business or a healthcare-related field. Many office managers in small practices will have begun as front desk personnel and worked their way up to overseeing the operations of the entire clinic over the course of their employment.
It may be possible for an individual to begin a career in office management by gaining part-time employment while still a student in a field such as medical records or as a patient services representative and rise through the ranks of the clinic in which they work while earning their degree. These opportunities require strong skills in interpersonal relations and communication and the desire to develop connections at your place of employment.
A customer service agent in the medical office or hospital whose duties may include scheduling appointments and collecting patient information, checking patients in or out for appointments, collecting balances at the time of service (co-pays, deductibles, etc) and showing patients to treatment rooms.