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Contents
What is Hospital and Healthcare Facility Management?
Hospital and healthcare facility management is a field of study focused on the operation, management, and health of a medical facility. A hospital facility manager ensures the medical providers and health care professionals working at a facility have a safe, clean, and fully functional building.
Healthcare facility management degree programs will prepare students for a variety of healthcare environments. Examples include organization types such as clinics, hospitals, urgent care facilities, emergency facilities, and public health departments. While healthcare facility managers will work for different organizations, the core skills will be similar.
College courses in hospital facility management will generally include facility management, building systems, bloodborne pathogens, medical terminology, introduction to health care, business systems, medical office systems, operations management, healthcare office systems, logistics, human resource management, and supply chain management.
Healthcare Facility Manager Requirements
Healthcare facility managers will be required to take specific college classes to prepare for a future in facility maintenance. Programs will vary but the core classes in facility management will persist. Common classes you can expect in college include:
- Healthcare Administration
- Scheduling
- Business Administration
- Project Management
- Construction Management
- Property Management
- Budgeting
- Bookkeeping
- Business Operations
- Facility Maintenance
- Accounting
- Communications
Skills & Abilities of Healthcare Facility Managers
Time Management: Using your time wisely and managing others in an effective manner
Critical Thinking: The use of reason and logic to identify solutions and alternatives in a cost effective and safe means given the myriad problems at hand
Speaking: Effectively communicating with subordinates, peers, and management team to concisely convey information
Writing: Communicate in a written fashion, longhand or digitally, to convey a variety of information effectively
Decision Making: Effectively weighing benefits and costs along with productivity and safety as means to make effective decisions about the healthcare facility
Managing Staff: Coaching, leading, managing, motivating, and developing team to get the best out of them for the benefit of the medical facility
Problem Solving: Investing time to identify issues, breaking them into smaller components and creating solutions based on resources available
Leading: Assess performance of the organization, your team members, and yourself to ensure compliance and productivity
Active Listening: Providing others with necessary attention to understand issues at hand and asking targeted questions to collect relevant information
Service Minded: Seeking ways to help others achieve their goals and objectives
Life Long Learning: Continually seeking to learn and grow, mandating others on your team adopt a similar mindset
Reading Comprehension: Understanding written communications and documents related to maintenance and service agreements
Negotiation: Collecting important information about a subject matter and creating win-win solutions for all related stakeholders
Employment in Healthcare Facility Management
Careers in healthcare facility management and hospital facility maintenance are highly competitive. Facility managers must have a solid track record of success, exposure to variety building issues, and management acumen. Specializations associated with facility management can include a number of similar vocations. Examples of careers include business manager, operations manager, communications, project manager, construction manager, janitorial supervisor, business manager, supply chain manager, and logistics specialist.
Healthcare Facility Managers Job Growth
Jobs in facility management appear to be trending well above the national average of six percent. In fact, jobs for construction managers and operations managers are set to add 248,000 jobs to the economy in the next decade. This growth translates to 14% for construction managers and 9% for operations managers. Similarly, employment growth for medical office managers and administrative service managers is expected increase by 17% and 14% respectively.
Job Duties of a Healthcare Facility Manager
1) Ensure maintenance team spends time daily to inspect grounds, equipment, building, and medical facilities to determine repair plans and modification to existing maintenance plans
2) Meet with managers and executive team to resolve logistical, operations, legal, and environmental issues
3) Manage budget and procure maintenance supplies and equipment along with building furniture and fixtures
4) Liaise between medical managers, developers, and related stakeholders
5) If outsourcing specific tasks, collect bids and administer employment contracts for healthcare facilities for services such as security, maintenance, cleaning and janitorial
6) Follow-up on safety issues, complaints, or potential problems and compliance violations in a rapid manner to ensure compliance with any/all healthcare regulations and rules
7) Organize and track maintenance projects and their associated costs in a consistent and relevant manner using accounting software or like software applications
8) Manage, coach, direct, counsel, and coordinate resources and staff activities to ensure a productive use of time
9) Engage with facility and operational staff daily and coordinate performance evaluations as needed
10) Manage related building operations, maintenance, repairs, and improvement of medical facilities
11) Schedule, plan, and coordinate general maintenance, remodeling projects, major repairs, and all related construction projects for commercial or residential properties
12) For projects of a large scope, solicit bids from licensed and bonded contractors for targeted renovations, maintenance, and repairs
13) Ensure appearance of the facility with curb appeal, a clean common area and make minor repairs such as ceiling tiles, light bulbs, and painting common areas
Additional Resources in Healthcare Facility Management
For more information about this solid industry, consider learning more via publications and associations. An example of a top-tier publication is Health Facilities Management (HFM) Magazine while associations worth researching is the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) and the Association for Healthcare Facility Management (ASHE).