Career Opportunities
Though healthcare is rapidly moving towards value-based care, population health management, prevention initiatives, and generally speaking, movement away from inpatient care, hospitals will continue to employ the greatest proportion of managers among all healthcare sectors. Acute care facilities, typically general or specialty hospitals, provide care for patients who have sustained life-threatening injuries or who have conditions that may lead to deteriorating health status. Increasingly, acute care and related services are provided within the complex environment of health systems.
Those entering the acute care sector will typically come from a background of management education or experience, while a growing number of individuals with a clinical background are transitioning into acute care management after they obtain the appropriate training and credentials.
Due to some of the changes described above, hospital managers at many levels will be looking at a changing list of opportunities. As hospitals continue to consolidate, centralize, and diversify functions, competition for managerial positions will increase at all job levels and the individuals with the ability to innovate and improve processes will be sought. However, managers looking to climb the executive ladder to the top, will likely face intense competition because the number of chief executive officer positions available in the acute care sector is limited. Furthermore, while there are a number of opportunities for managers in acute care settings, jobs will grow at a relatively slower rate compared with some other healthcare segments such as group practice management, ambulatory care, post-acute care, long-term care and newer areas such as retail and tele-medicine.
Each management level in the acute care sector has its own responsibilities, qualifications and salary range. To find out what to expect as an entry-level manager, mid-level manager, and senior-level executive, click on the links below:
- Entry-Level Management Positions in Acute Care
- Mid-Level Management Positions in Acute Care
- Senior-Level Management Positions in Acute Care
Types of Hospitals
Hospitals are generally classified as freestanding facilities, members of multihospital systems, critical access hospital (CAH), sole community hospital (SCH), Medicare-dependent hospital (MDH), and rural referral center (RRC) programs. Freestanding hospitals are not affiliated with any other hospitals or health systems. They are totally dependent on the community for operational support. Sole community hospitals may be the only source for inpatient services in a particular area. Designation as an SCH, CAH, MDH or RRC can hinge on the hospital’s geographic location and distance from other acute care facilities and healthcare providers, the number of inpatient beds, payor mix and other considerations. Multihospital systems are made up of facilities that have agreed to share the provision of healthcare services. These systems can therefore provide a wider range of services to a larger number of people and may be able to reduce expenses by capturing savings from economies of scale and by integrating services to avoid wasteful duplication.
In addition, hospitals are classified according to other criteria, including ownership, length of patient stay, and conditions treated. Hospitals range from investor-owned or proprietary facilities to federal or public facilities to faith-based or nonsectarian facilities. Based on the length of time patients receive inpatient care, hospitals are classified as "short stay" or "long stay." Long-term facilities are usually identified as those with an average length of patient stay greater than 30 days. Some facilities, known as specialty hospitals, treat only specific conditions, such as burns, cancer, eye disease and injury, heart disease, and behavioral health problems.
Keeping Up with Trends in Healthcare
Professionals in healthcare constantly contend with powerful and persistent forces for change. It’s important to conduct regular environmental assessments to monitor these forces for change as it relates to your career path.
The American College of Healthcare Executives suggests the following resources to help keep track of the marketplace:
- ACHE Career Resource Center
- Early Careerist Network
- Futurescan 2017-2022
- Health Management Careers.Org
- Career Management Articles
Other valuable sources of information on the healthcare management marketplace include: