The healthcare industry is a crucial part of the economy in many countries. It may even be a country’s largest employer. This means that as it continues to grow, the need for more business professionals will also increase.
But how exactly are business and healthcare related? The answer might be seen in educational programs that combine the best practices of both disciplines. There are plenty of online resources that can help you learn more about them.
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Business Professionals: Who They Are And What They Do
Business professionals are persons whose expertise or fields of study are in management, marketing, human resources, and finance. Some are usually skilled in one of these areas, while others can be considered proficient in all four.
Individuals who belong to the management field have skills in organizational management, human resources, and leadership. They’re usually tasked with anything from designing training programs to restructuring a company’s hierarchy. They may also be experts in recruitment and sourcing.
Meanwhile, marketing professionals are experts at understanding customer needs. They’re responsible for strategies that help a company reach its target market or demographic. They can do so by promoting products using social media channels and conducting other digital marketing campaigns. Marketing professionals excel at branding, pricing products for maximum profit margins, and assessing marketing campaigns.
HR professionals are experts in people management—they’re the ones who hire, train, and develop a company’s workforce. They also help with recruitment efforts, if needed, and advise on how to conduct employee performance reviews or training programs.
Lastly are the finance experts. This group is highly trained in the complex world of financial management. They’re often very experienced in finance-related fields such as corporate taxation, equity financing, or mergers and acquisitions. One may also expect that professionals who work in the financial sector will know the latest laws that regulate such matters.
Understanding The Healthcare System Today
Today, the industry is believed to be in need of more business professionals more than ever. This demand might have resulted from trends that have significantly affected healthcare post–COVID-19. There are other reasons, however. And some of them are listed as follows:
1. Technological Changes
Source: Mobilmindz
There are many technological changes in the health industry that require more business knowledge. This is because hospitals and facilities change the way care is delivered by leveraging technology to provide better patient outcomes, lower costs, and increase clinical efficiency.
Some examples of this trend include
- Hospitals using mobile health apps for medication adherence and remote monitoring.
- Home telehealth care in rural communities with limited access to specialists. There are even providers in rural areas that manage employees remotely through videoconferencing software. This enables them to see patients’ health data on their screens.
- Utilization of online platforms where clinics using online booking systems for faster patient registration and fewer no-shows.
- Advances in medical technology and practices.
All these changes brought by technology can only be met by more business professionals to keep up with the demand.
2. Continuous Training
Source: Northeastern University
HR professionals are the people experts. They can provide a range of services to healthcare organizations such as leadership development programs and training staff on customer service or administration skills. They may also work with companies within the industry for consulting purposes. With business professionals’ help, healthcare providers can offer better health services to their patients while also helping to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
3. Growing Variety Of Healthcare Services
Source: Unitex
The options for healthcare services seem to be limitless today more than ever. A quick internet search will show an endless number of services offered—from women’s health clinics, sleep disorder centers, fertility specialists, and dental practices.
In addition, although there’s still a prevalence of in-person health services, digital services are also gaining popularity throughout the last few years. For instance, virtual healthcare services such as telehealth and remote patient monitoring have emerged in recent years. Their goals are to provide better healthcare access for those who live remotely or are incapable of in-person consults.
This situation pushes many businesses in the healthcare industry to be more creative with their marketing strategies. Currently, it’s been noticed that there’s a rise in the number of healthcare advertising agencies specializing in healthcare branding and marketing strategies for medical practices. Other similar companies are working to create more cohesive connections with society through various social media platforms, and this allows them to reach their target audience from all angles.
4. Changing Legislations
Source: USC News – University of Southern California
Time passes by, and so do laws affecting healthcare change. This is why medical practices need to work with agencies that understand legal concerns and make sure they’re compliant with all regulations.
The United States Affordable Care Act (ACA) is one example of legislation affecting the healthcare industry in recent years. Several controversies surrounded the law not too long as soon as it was passed. Some of them include the increase in patient consumerism that challenges payment collections, a decline in uncompensated care costs, and lower reimbursement rates, among others. These concerns demand financial and human resource managers who can reinvent the wheel to respond to the increasing care costs.
5. Healthcare Industry Is Just Like Any Other Industry
Source: BoardEffect
The healthcare industry needs business professionals because they just work like any other industry. This means that they also need people for their finance, marketing, sales, human resources, project management, information technology, or engineering or maintenance departments.
Thus, any changes in their market mean that they need to respond too. To illustrate, think about how the current health crisis calls for a change in the way people think about healthcare and how it’s delivered. From a system that emphasizes quantity, healthcare has transformed into one that values quality, outcomes, and patient-centered care.
This transition requires significant changes both within the industry and among providers who are typically not trained to be business professionals but must now become more like managers. Also, an organization’s performance and profitability hinge on how well it manages its employees’ time and resources.
Bottom Line
The healthcare industry has been evolving over the last years as is discussed in this article. Thus, the traditional way of how the healthcare industry works don’t seem to cut it anymore. Today, business professionals are needed to help facilitate this change and prepare for it. The ability of business professionals to positively affect the lives of others should be acknowledged, now more than ever.
