Healthcare management is emerging as an upcoming field in India. Given the possible growth of this sector, professionals with a specialised degree will be one of most sought after in the coming days. It is estimated that it will grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 16.6 per cent. This is phenomenal in light of recent growth in any industry.

Many students are highly confused with what to do after a graduation. Few lucky ones get the opportunity to work but majority have to do a postgraduate degree to have a decent profession. Healthcare management is one of such fields that has a brilliant prospects in job environment. Currently the demand outweighs the supply and this is likely to be in the coming decade. Here are the top 10 career opportunities in hospital management:

Patient safety and quality management co-ordinators: This position guides staff within the hospital and seeks to improve the quality of patient care through assurance and innovation in partnership with local teams. It helps in the process to improve the reduction of medical errors and other factors that contribute to accidental patient outcomes. They together with senior clinical and operational managers are responsible for the implementation of patient safety and quality improvement initiatives.

Hospital operations/administrators: Health administrators are responsible for safeguarding smooth operation of a hospital, system or healthcare organisation. As the backbone, they take on the responsibilities of supervising vast expanses of medical personnel. They work behind the scenes to make all types of health care facilities work as efficiently as possible and too can work on hiring doctors, developing budgets, coming up with new policies and patient services to name a few.

Deputy/assistant medical superintendents:They ensure high standards of patient care and work to deliver on service quality standards along with defining and implementing performance parameters for doctors. They are experts in implementing and adhering to standard operative procedures in all clinical specialties, conducting regular medical audits on an ongoing basis, etc. They work to ensure that proper standard operative procedures are in place for the efficient admission, care and discharge of patients.

CEOs of hospitals : It is of great importance for a hospital to be run in as highly a cost effective manner as is possible and this is handled by a chief executive officer. A hospital CEO is the person responsible for the management and operation of an entire healthcare organisation who ensures that the hospital is run in the most cost-effective manner possible. The main objective is to plan, direct and co-ordinate operational activities at the highest level of management with the help of secondary level executives and staff managers.

Entrepreneurs: Many hospital management experts do not wish to join any industry or an organisation but start a venture of their own. At this current scenario of start-ups and entrepreneurs, this is emerging as one of the new but interesting career option of starting one’s own set-ups or enterprises. Start-ups can be hospitals, consulting firms, management agencies or even healthcare IT firms.

Training co-ordinators: They are responsible for training, mapping out plans, designing and developing programmes.

Managers/assistant managers at third party administrators : TPAs function as an intermediary between the insurance provider and the insured. One can join as managers and assistant managers on pursuing healthcare management and these specialists work with medical records, coding and billing professionals, and insurance companies to ensure the plan benefits are properly applied.

Bio-medical waste management expert : The ministry of essential and climate change, Government of India has raised the BMW Rules on 28 March 2016, through a gazette notification, that every health care facility is mandated to segregate and dispose off. There is an imminent need to increase the awareness and training/ capacity building of the different category of health functionary in safe disposal of bio-medical waste from hospital and health centre.

District programme managers: This category of professionals are designated to the monitoring and planning of district health strategies, as in the National Rural Health Mission.

Consultants in international and national NGOs: NGO’s working in health sector is another favoured destination.

However, there is catch in all of these. Healthcare and hospital management is a specialised field and needs professionals to impart the appropriate knowledge and skills to a fresh graduate. Not all of the institutes and academies have the required capabilities to provide curriculum and training to create job ready candidates. Thus it is important to choose the right institution so that opportunities could unfold it. There are a plethora of career opportunities for professionals undergoing healthcare management. Professionals should select the right career with a couple of things in mind, the foremost being interest in that field. As the old saying goes, if you are doing what interests you, sky is the limit.

The writer is Dean Academics, IIHMR, Delhi.