Mastering the Health-ternship: The Essential Skill Sets for Clinicians in Healthcare Companies

In recent years, the pressure to reduce costs while improving healthcare outcomes has become the main challenge for most clinicians who need, at the same time, to understand and implement the digital transformation of healthcare. To successfully navigate this demanding environment, clinicians come to realize that owning medical skills, certifications, and degrees is no longer enough. They need to gain a more extensive  set of business skills that would enable them to choose and pursue the desired career paths and access the positions they target as healthcare professionals. 

In this article we have taken a look at the essential skills set for clinicians working in healthcare companies. 

Why do clinicians need business skills?

Consider this: you want to become the Chief Medical Officer in the hospital you are currently working in. Your transition to such a role would require more than what your medical training and degree have equipped you with: you would need to work with cross functional teams, understand the business terminology used all around you and possess several skills that you don’t currently master. The solution? Learn, apply, repeat.

Business skills every clinician needs

1. Analytics and data management  

Every day, new tools for collecting, storing, analyzing and interpreting huge amount of medical data are developed in the healthcare environment. So it’s no surprise that a clinician – especially one pursuing a role that entails cost reduction without sacrificing the quality of medical services rendered – must understand the complex world of this data. Data can be used for:

• detect gaps in care provided to patients and identify solutions to address them;
• highlight process flow deficiencies and find means to remedy them;
• understand where most spending happens, why and how it can be reduced without affecting the quality of care provided;
• assess risk of threats like fraud and data breaches and find ways to mitigate them;
• detect, track and report epidemics in real time;
• understand trends and use them for improving the decision making process;
• drive transformation in order to implement changes at organization level;
• understand the relationship between variables and estimate various statistics;
• deliver more personalized, improved-outcomes care for patients.

2. Leadership 

Clinicians who want to lead need to master the complex topic of leadership. They need to understand what motivates their teams and know how to build and nurture a constructive organizational culture by encouraging feed-back for improving both internal workflows and interactions with patients for better health results.

Recruiting and retaining talent, promoting appraisal and rewarding innovative solutions proposed by employees and designed to reduce costs are also coordinates that clinicians should guide themselves by when looking to create and maintain a constant growth organizational environment. 

Leadership means also possessing the knowledge to identify and properly address the weaknesses of the team, identifying team leaders and driving success by putting the right people in the right roles.

3. Financial acumen

Understanding finances enables clinicians to identify where most resources are or should be allocated and how expenses can be reduced. Financial knowledge also helps them make better strategic decisions, manage the department’s budget more efficiently and analyze the financial performance of their team and how it can be improved (if case) in order to reach the financial goals established. 

Understanding finance is necessary also because clinicians need to communicate numbers, results， and estimations to people they report to or relate with: superiors, peers, shareholders. Speaking the same language in terms of finance is no longer a “nice to have” skill, but a mandatory one for any clinician who wants to make a difference in his role or pursues a higher position within the organization. 

4. Strategic Management

In healthcare, strategic management is regarded as the process of setting goals to move your department (or organization) into the future by establishing the right goals and corresponding projects that will get you there. 

Strategic management also entails defining and pursuing a three to five years strategy which often refers to answering several capital questions:

• what the department (organization) stands for?
• what are the main sources of our revenues?
• how do we spend these revenues and could we do this better?
• what can we do to decrease our expenses?
• how can we optimize our operations and provide our patients improved healthcare experiences?

Understanding strategic management enables clinicians to stay updated with the performance of the department and to make better decisions. It helps them preserve the focus and direction even when circumstances change and stay on track for meeting assumed objectives.

5. Effective communication

Communication is a central point in clinicians’ activity and role. They communicate with patients, family members, peers, direct reports, supervisors, shareholders and other stakeholders. And knowing what to say, when to say and how to say is paramount. From communicating a diagnosis to a patient to presenting the financial results of the department to a Board meeting, clinicians need to have an extended range of communication skills to properly address to each type of audience. 

Effective communication skills:

• ensure streamlined processes and operations inside the department;
• reduce the risk of misunderstandings with patients and their families;
• ensure a smooth collaboration with professionals from other departments or medical specialties;
• help build a good reputation of the department within the organization.

Outstanding communication skills mean clinicians master all channels and methods of communication traditionally used in healthcare, from business reports and letters to emails, meetings minutes and newsletters.

Other skills clinicians need in order to perform efficiently and deliver targeted results are entrepreneurial vision, marketing skills, technology savvy, healthcare administration and negotiating skills. From negotiating the terms of the employment contract to helping a patient make life changes to benefit better health, negotiating must be a part of a clinician’s profile, especially when he targets higher roles inside the organization.

How can clinicians acquire business skills?

There are several ways clinicians can acquire the business skills they need in order to become expert professionals, to advance in their career or to expand their job options.

• Traditional programs

Whether it’s a degree in health administration or an MBA in health management, there are a multitude of programs to choose from in order to acquire or improve business skills. Do your research, ask for opinions from persons who have attended these kinds of programs and then choose the one you think will equip you with the skills you need to achieve your objectives.

• Alternative programs

From online one-to-one sessions to formal, in-person workshops, the market provides healthcare professionals a wide range of options for professional development by helping them acquire or master different business skills. A quick browse on the Internet can help you find the program that suits your needs in terms of skills targeted, timing, cost. Perform a proper research before deciding which program to choose to make sure you will gain the skill you seek from a certified, professional enabler. 

• On the job training

On the job training is common in most industries and healthcare is no exception to this rule. If the skills you seek are not in the program you attend when transitioning to a new position, ask your HR department and your supervisor if you can act for a limited period of time as an “apprentice” in the department that you think could help you acquire the skills you want.

CONCLUSION

The time when clinicians needed to have only medical expertise and experience is long gone. We can constantly acquire new information, master new skills and extend the range of professional options in case what we currently do no longer works. For clinicians, business skills can lay the groundwork for the best patient care they can deliver and help them achieve their professional goals whether it’s advancing in the career, managing a team or opening a private care practice. Becoming business savvy enables clinicians to hire and manage teams, negotiate, motivate employees, increase revenue, grow their reputation as professionals, attract investors, access leadership roles and, most importantly, enjoy a successful and fulfilling career while providing personalized, high quality care. The time to invest in acquiring the set of business skills is now!

Additional sources:

• https://online.maryville.edu/blog/3-valuable-business-skills-changing-health-care/
• https://www.businesshelper.org/importance-of-business-skills-for-healthcare-professionals/
• https://www.2ascribe.com/articles/business/three-business-skills-doctors-need-to-know
• https://www.aafp.org/family-physician/practice-and-career/managing-your-practice/business-of-medicine-for-physicians.html
• https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/blog/strategic-management-in-healthcare