How to Become A Hospital Manager in India - Comprehensive Career Guide

Usually, when we think about a hospital, the main idea that pops up in our mind is that of a doctor or a nurse treating patients. However, to ensure the smooth running of a hospital (or any other clinic/healthcare centre), there are a number of managerial aspects like the operations, supply chains, finance, etc., in the backend that need to be handled. This is where a hospital manager steps in, who is a professionally trained management professional skilled to handle the various aspects of running a hospital/healthcare institution. 

If you are someone who is passionate or interested in working in the healthcare industry but does not have the interest or aptitude for studying medicine, then hospital management can be an excellent alternate avenue for you to consider. 

In this blog, we explore in-depth the nature of this role, its career scope, the educational qualifications needed to become a hospital manager, and so on. 

Why Choose a Career in Hospital Management?

Hospital management is a specialised branch of management focused on hospitals and the healthcare industry. Alongside basic managerial acumen, this domain also requires the professional to be resilient and tolerant to stress, considering the overwhelming work environment of hospitals and healthcare institutions. This might be a suitable domain of work for those interested in contributing to primary healthcare management, but not through medical practice. 

Hospital management as a domain has been seeing constant growth, especially in the wake of greater emphasis on healthcare and the establishment of more and more healthcare institutions across the globe. The role is globally relevant and offers lucrative financial compensation in addition to contributing directly to patient care. 

Given below are a few of the key reasons you should consider this career in India. 

• Expanding Healthcare Sector: The healthcare sector in India has been experiencing a steady growth and is projected to grow exponentially in the near future, which makes it an apt career to venture into early on and establish oneself as a credible professional in it. 

• Critical Role in Healthcare Delivery: Many individuals are guided by the passion to serve the ill and tend to the diseased, but may lack the aptitude or interest to venture into medicine. Healthcare administration and hospital management provide another avenue through which one can meaningfully contribute to healthcare delivery in the nation. 

• Competitive Compensation Standards: Financially, as well, hospital management is a career that pays off. Not only are the roles offered to trained professionals at lucrative salaries, but the scope of financial growth through right upskilling and job switching is also huge.  

• Stream Independent Career Path: While medicine and primary healthcare require an individual to have a background in the sciences, hospital management in itself does not have such stream-specific barriers. Rather, people from Arts, Commerce, and Science can venture into the field with the right managerial qualifications. 

• Widening Scope: Hospital managers also have a number of related domains to venture into, which are specific to the healthcare industry but provide a diversity of functions to explore, such as healthcare administration, financial management, supply chain management, operations management, healthcare consulting, medical tourism, quality assurance, and so on. 

Explore the Role: Responsibilities of a Hospital Manager

In hospital management, you can either go for a role specific to a function (e.g., hospital operations, hospital supply chain, hospital finances, etc.) or you can take on a senior, general managerial role in a hospital. The latter involves the overall oversight of all major administrative functions of the organization and can hence be multifaceted. Since the role of a hospital manager is quite dynamic, one may have to lead various functions and projects and coordinate cross-functionally to ensure smooth operations. 

Listed below are a few of the key domains of responsibility for a hospital manager. (Please note, this list is neither conclusive nor exhaustive, as this role is quite flexible and may require a number of miscellaneous responsibility-handling as per the situational demands). 

Skill Set for Hospital Management

Hospital management requires nuanced knowledge of administration and management, along with an understanding of the context of a healthcare institution. This calls for a myriad of functional and soft skills areas in which they must be well-adept. These skills are elaborated upon in this section. 

1. Technical Skills to Succeed as a Hospital Manager

Technical and functional know-how of the healthcare industry and its management is central to the role of a hospital manager. To become a hospital manager, being aware of the healthcare laws and regulations, compliance and regulatory frameworks, safety and quality practices, platforms for health information management, administration, patient care, etc., is very important. Honing these skills enables an aspirant to establish a successful career in hospital management.  

Key Skills	Specifications
Healthcare Laws & Compliance Knowledge	Being aware of the latest rules and regulations related to healthcare, hospitals, and legal frameworks (e.g., ANBH, JCI, etc.)
Hospital Operations Management	Being well-adept at managing operations of a hospital related to finances, patient administration, workflow optimization, scheduling, and planning, etc.
Safety & Quality Management	Being committed to patient well-being and improved experience through implementing safety protocols, quality assurance programs, improved hospital practices, and so on.
Health Information Systems (HIS) & Technology	Being proficient with health information systems, electronic health records, health solutions etc. (especially relevant in modern digitization needs of the healthcare sector)
Patient Care Administration	Managing all-around patient experience, including patient satisfaction, grievance-handling, service quality etc.

2. Soft Skills to Succeed as a Hospital Manager

A hospital being a high-stress environment requiring frequent frontline interactions with patient parties, calls for significant soft skills and behavioural expertise across a number of domains- functioning effectively in a high-stress environment, taking high-stakes decisions, solving problems flexibly and effectively, leading and inspiring your team, and most importantly being empathetic towards patient parties and their concerns. 

Further details about these domains have been shared below. 

Key Skills	Specifications
Leadership & Team Management	Being adept at managing teams, inspiring them, and managing diverse departments across the hospital towards improved practices.
Decision-Making Skills	Being able to handle stressful, ambiguous, complex, or high-stakes situations to make effective decisions.
Stress Management & Resilience	Being resilient and handling stressful situations in a calm and effective manner to manage crises and high-stakes situations.
Coordination & Planning	Being skilled in managing multiple timelines, coordinating effectively across departments and functions to ensure a smooth hospital administration.
Empathy	Being understanding and considerate towards patient concerns, problems and offering support to ease the patient experience as much as possible.

Career Analysis: Scope of Hospital Management

From a professional standpoint, hospital management is a lucrative career, as healthcare institutions in the private and public sectors pay hospital managers handsomely for their contributions in running the institutions smoothly. However, in addition to compensation, one must also consider the alternate career options available in the field, the potential for future growth available, top recruiters etc. 

In this section, we explore each of these aspects in detail. 

1. Career Opportunities in Hospital Management

A hospital manager can look at a general managerial role in hospitals and clinics as well as consider going for specific functions such as finance, operations, human resource management, administration, healthcare consulting and so on. Detailed below are some such related job domains that a hospital manager is eligible to explore along with the approximate compensation offered in India for the roles. 

Career Option	Average Salary (Per Annum)
Hospital Administrator	INR 6 LPA
Healthcare Quality Manager	INR 8 LPA
Finance Manager (Hospital/Healthcare)	INR 13 LPA
Clinical Operations Coordinator	INR 6 LPA
Health Information Manager	INR 10 LPA
Public Health Program Manager	INR 14 LPA
Health Services Manager	INR 13.5 LPA

The top recruiters and hiring organizations for hospital managers are, understandably, hospitals! Additionally, many healthcare institutions, administrative organizations and clinics can also employ hospital managers. These include both public sector institutions and private institutions and enterprises. Some of the top medical facilities and institutions recruiting for this role in India have been illustrated below. 

2. Career Growth Trajectory of Hospital Management

The growth trajectory for a hospital manager is quite lucrative, and while they may earn moderate and decent salaries at the trainee and executive levels, the earning potential for hospital management is quite high. With seniority and experience, one can experience significant financial growth in this domain, as has been illustrated below. (Please note the figures in the graph are projected based on current compensation standards in India and are liable to change)

Career Navigator: How to Become a Hospital Manager? 

Individuals need not belong to only a scientific background to venture into hospital management. Since this is a managerial role, individuals professionally trained in management can explore this role irrespective of their earlier educational background. Thus, this is a more accessible job option in the healthcare industry. 

To become a hospital manager, a student must complete their basic HSC education from a recognised board, followed by a relevant Bachelor's degree in public health administration/hospital management/healthcare administration etc. While a few organisations hire professionals with a Bachelor’s qualification, a majority of the hospitals prefer candidates with PG qualifications, such as an MBA/MHA or a PG diploma in hospital management/administration. 

The overall career trajectory for establishing a career in hospital management has been outlined herein. 

Some of the recognised undergraduate and postgraduate courses in hospital management, hospital administration, and healthcare management are listed below with their approximate tuition fee. 

Hospital Management Courses	Approximate Course Fee
BBA in Hospital Management	INR 5,00,000
Online BBA in Hospital Management	INR 1,50,000
Online BBA in Healthcare Management	INR 1,80,000
B.Sc in Healthcare Management	INR 2,00,000 – INR 20,00,000
Bachelors in Public Health (BPH)	INR 5,00,000
MBA in Hospital Management	INR 8,00,000
Online MBA in Hospital Administration	INR 2,00,000
Online MBA in Healthcare Management	INR 2,50,000
Online MBA in Hospital Administration & Healthcare Management	INR 2,50,000
Online Executive MBA in Hospital Management	INR 3,95,000
Master of Hospital Administration (MHA)	INR 3,00,000 – INR 7,00,000
PG Diploma in Hospital & Health Management (PGDHHM)	INR 30,000

Both public sector and private sector institutions, hospitals, and higher educational institutions offer courses in various hospital management-related specialisations such as hospital administration, healthcare administration, healthcare management, and so on. What’s more, these courses are available at both the UG and PG levels and in online and offline modes, allowing for great flexibility for the learner to select a course as per their needs. The eminent institutions offering courses in hospital management and related domains have been illustrated below. 

Conclusion 

Hospital management is a dynamic and evolving career domain in the healthcare industry, which is currently looking ata  huge scope for growth in the current Indian economy. With the boom that the healthcare industry is currently experiencing, the scope for growth in this role is quite high. For individuals looking to serve the noble purpose of patient care and healthcare delivery via non-medical pathways, this can be an excellent career choice.