The hospital administrators, also known as healthcare managers are crucial in ensuring that medical facilities are functioning efficiently to deliver the quality patient care. The responsibility of a skilled hospital administrator is to take care of the day-to-day operation of hospitals or clinics or public health agencies.

Duties performed by a healthcare administrator;

• They are the associations or connections between the governing bodies, department heads, and medical staff
• Evaluation and Recruitment of assistants, nurses, and doctors for the hospital.
• Budget planning
• Work to organize, control and coordinate the health services according to the policies set by the governing bodies, national medical agencies, and ethical committees
• Develop patterns and programs for scientific research to be undertaken by that hospital
• Abet in educating and training of new doctors or other staff at the hospital
• Prominent role in quality assurance, patient treatments, and public relations

For such a vast set of roles to be performed the hospital administrators need sharp business skills for long-term planning, budgets, development of an efficient operating system to deliver quality medical services. Moreover, these professionals review contracts, expenditures, and annual financial reports thus they need to stay up-to-date with the new healthcare laws and regulations, as well as medical and technological advances.

The following set of qualities can make a successful hospital administrator:

Academic Training and Work Experience: Academically, the professional must obtain a degree in healthcare management from an accredited college or university. Moreover, an internship or fellowship within a healthcare organization will have additional benefits. The candidates should display a strong commitment to continue their professional development throughout their degree and training.

Discretion: Hospital administrators are also responsible for patients’ medical records and files. Ethically it is prohibited to disclose the patient information unless legit thus, the good administrator should have sensitivity and understanding of the ethics of patient privacy.

Technology Skills: A good healthcare manager needs to work with office software programs, including spreadsheets, databases, word processing and graphic presentation software. Moreover, the hospitals and healthcare facilities use electronic health records (EHR) these days. Thus you need a good hand in technology, as you have to work with new software and make sure it works efficiently for the company as a whole.

Legal Knowledge: The health administrator’s job remains to understand and implement health care policies. A comprehensive ability for the regulations in the healthcare industry and their application to your healthcare facility is necessary. The knowledge about policies set by the governing bodies, national medical agencies, and ethical committees will help health administrator to govern the organization efficiently.

Relationship Management and Communication Skills: Healthcare administrators deal with patients, doctors, nurses, allied health workers, suppliers, other fellow administrators and insurance companies on the day-to-day basis. They require efficiently communicating with all, preserving their values which will help in developing good relations and ultimately contributing to keeping the organization running smoothly. Thus, relationship management is an essential quality of any healthcare administrator.

Leadership and Strong Management Skills: It is notable that an organization has the group of differently-focused professionals which makes the leadership competencies. Leading is not only about being "the boss"; but it meant to take responsibilities on behalf of the staff, to recognize the personal needs of other professionals and to find creative approaches for fostering teamwork to achieve long-term and short-term goals. The active management skills are needed to use organic strategies for goal orientation and facilitating change within an organization.

Flexibility and Adaptability: A candidate who fits into the organization is well suited for any industry; the ability to adapt well will make a good manager. The hospital manager may need to work according to the organization working with, and the professional ability to be flexible, thus displaying an appearance of confidence and competence will have a positive result in professional and personal growth.

Planning and Problem-Solving Skills: Excellent planning and execution skills are required for efficient operation of the organization to get work done in time. The plans for future programs must be on display prior. Problems may hinder the execution of strategies thus a good healthcare manager should have dynamism in handling the issues and solving them without raising any disputes. He/She should be able to troubleshoot the conflicts among office personnel. The challenges like; competing for proficient healthcare professionals, competing for patients, improving patient care through technology, changes in financial structure may arise so hospital administrator should be able to overcome all of them.