WHY HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT?????

During one of the Christmas holidays, I had a discussion with a friend who is a Resident in one of the Teaching Hospitals. We talked about my Hospital Management Books. He was of the opinion that he didn't need stuff like that to succeed. His question was "Why do I have to know anything about hospital management or administration? Medicine is a holistic discipline." I pointed out a couple of things to him.

First, EVERY health professional will eventually get involved in private practice. The reason is simple. You can work for the government for only 35 years or till age 65 (whichever comes first).

So, let’s assume you are a resident like him preparing for your Part II Exams. 

When you pass, you become a Consultant and get employed somewhere. Fine. You work maybe 3 days/week, earn maybe N 650, 000/month and eventually retire. What next? You set up a private practice that never really gets off the ground. You begin to wonder why. Afterall, you are a skilled Pediatrician, patients should be flocking into your clinic. Then it hits you! Business is different from Medicine. Hospital management is no child's play. 

You need to know the game in order to play it successfully. You may then find out you never really had the time to develop that aspect of your career!

I don't want you to ever get to such a state in your potentially great career. Examples of such "failures" abound all around us.

Recently, at an AGPMPN-organized CME in Bayelsa State, someone else asked these questions: WHY HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT FOR DOCTORS? WHY DO WE HAVE TO LEARN ABOUT HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT?

This was my reply:

• ·         Nobody can work with the government for ever. You need to be futuristic in your thinking and learn skills that will help you achieve your dreams.
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• ·         Some doctors in administrative positions in public hospitals rely too heavily on the Directors of Administration. As a result, they may be misled to take the wrong decisions. Therefore you really need to develop basic management principles to function effectively.
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• ·         An untrained person practicing as a doctor is referred to as a quack. In the same way, an untrained person managing a Hospital without learning management skills will be unable to build a world-class standard facility. Such a doctor may only succeed through "trial and error". You certainly do not want that.

Since the medical curriculum is reasonably biased towards clinical courses, we need to explore other avenues where we can learn management skills to be relevant in today's world. The CME is an excellent opportunity to do that.

So, lets introduce more hospital management/administration courses in our CMEs. That way we will be building a solid foundation for our great futures.

Thanks for reading.

See you soon!