Health care centers are constantly faced with management challenges that require professional skills to prepare, handle, and overcome to improve and maintain reputation of quality and care to patients (Morton, et al., 2017). The challenges are either internal or external and practice management skills to make appropriate and informed decisions for effective running of a health care. Practice management is a field of study that covers operational and strategic aspect of running successful health care centers. Practice management is important to improving operational efficiency, addressing challenges and opportunities that lead to improved profitability, competitiveness, and sustainability. Practice manager are responsible for planning, staffing, leading and ensuring compliance to relevant regulations. They also manage revenues, security procedures, and recommend on strategies to minimize cost and improve efficiency (Blais, 2015). Tertiary qualification equips practice managers to effectively and efficiently execute their roles in improving and maintaining great reputation of quality health care to patients. The following research proposal aims to find out if practice management is a recognized profession and the benefits for the industry if practice managers were qualified. The research also investigates if on job training works instead of tertiary education. The research proposal will outline the research questions, review past literature, and discuss the research design and methods.
Why is tertiary qualification important to practice managers in health care?
The research seeks to answer why it is importance of practice managers having or acquiring tertiary qualification. Health care administration is an important aspect to successful medical center and it continuity. Tertiary qualification in this case refers to knowledge and skills of health care administration. The knowledge and skills include planning, leading, staffing, and controlling activities in a health care center to achieve the organization objectives. Tertiary qualifications are not a requirement for a person to work as practice managers. Some practice managers are doctors’ wife who takes the role of administration. Other practicing managers are professionals in other fields such as physicians etc. According to The Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM) in 2015 estimated that 14.6% of practice managers had secondary school or below qualification. The AAPM also recorded that 52% had diploma qualifications, 16% Bachelors qualification and 15% were postgraduate (Morton et al., 2017). The research will therefore answer the importance of acquiring tertiary qualification in order to work as practice managers in health care. The research main question will be answered by answering research sub questions. They include;
The roles of practice managers are complex and sophisticated. The advancement of running healthcare practice has necessitated the development of practice management knowledge. Practice managers roles depend on the size and type of healthcare practice. Practice managers roles have responsibilities of implementing processes that increase efficiency. The practice managers have a role to manage healthcare finances. Practice Manager is tasked to oversee acquisition and utilization of financial resources in the organization. This role ensures the healthcare acquires funding and minimizes cost to enhance profitability. Practice managers ensure compliances of a healthcare with relevant regulations. The healthcare is required by different institutions to comply when operating in a certain time or location. For instance, Bradler et al., (2016) found that practice managers were responsible to maintain a government local permits and environmental requirements in order for the healthcare to operate. Practice managers have a role to meet human resource needs of a healthcare. The practice managers ensure that the healthcare human resource needs are met while managing personnel individual needs to ensure smooth supply of labour and job satisfaction. Ginter, (2018) established that practice managers have a role to manage information technology in a healthcare. Data and information is an important part of a healthcare and require appropriate technology to manage patients’ health data for quality health delivery. In another account, Finkelman, (2015) found that practice managers had a role to manage risk in a healthcare. Practice managers analyze both internal and external healthcare environment and formulate risk management plan that enable the health center to mitigate risk that can affect it normal operations. Finkelman, (2015) established that practice managers had a central role to healthcare marketing, governance and organizational change. Practice managers lead the health to attaining change that is important for relevance and competitiveness in the industry.
Qualified practice manager enhance the overall performance of a healthcare. Practice managers with tertiary qualifications understand their roles and responsibility that contribute to the excellence in health care. The managers are able to review and implement processes effectively that enable the healthcare to achieve it overall goal. Qualified managers also enable a healthcare to be strategic in the industry. Wager, Lee, and Glaser, (2017) noted that qualified practice managers minimized the cost of operations. They are able to minimize cost by increasing efficiency in resource allocation and operations. They are able to minimize cost while maximizing quality of health care delivery. Bergeron, (2017) found that practice managers were responsible to leading healthcare organizational change. He noted that implementation of change require highly qualified professional to avoid negative impact of change. This enables a healthcare to adapt to change and maintain competitiveness. Bergeron, (2017) in a research concluded that qualified hospital management is strongly related to quality of healthcare to patients. Improving managers skills in hospitals significantly lowered mortality rate. Ginter, (2018) also found that qualified management practices increased productivity outcomes that led to better financial performance of healthcare. On another account Masters, (2015), found that qualified practice managers increased their healthcare competitiveness in the health sector. Masters, (2015), noted that having a competitive edge for hospitals especially in private sector. They concluded that competition is unavoidable and hospitals are supposed to compete ethically by pursuing excellence in quality healthcare delivery.
The Australian Association of Practice management was formed to regulate and support practice management in healthcare. The AAPM organization is a nonprofit body and is recognized as a national peak association for professional practice managers. The association was formed in 1979 and provides career pathway and recognizes member qualifications and experience through Certified Practice Manager.
Gopee, and Galloway, (2017) recorded that doctors recognized the importance of managerial skills in running a healthcare. Doctors agreed that success of a hospital required more than medical practice. The task of planning, leading, staffing, and controlling resources in a healthcare is an overwhelming activity that requires qualification to effectively allocate resources to meet predetermined goals. Gopee, and Galloway, (2017) also found that doctors practicing management acknowledge gaps in knowledge and skills that they had to learn to run work as a practice manager. In another research, healthcare owners recognized the importance of practice managers’ skills but favored on job training. Shareholders preferred practice managers with experience in the healthcare.
The research will use case study research design to investigate and explain why tertiary qualification is important to practice managers. Case studies will be used to examine the occurring of practice managers and establish the important of having tertiary qualifications. A case study refers to an empirical examination of phenomenon in the real world as they naturally occur in their context (Creswell, and Creswell, 2017). The case study design has been used to allow in-depth investigation of the research question. Case study research design has allows and encourages a deeper and holistic understanding of the research problem (Baskarada, 2014). The research will therefore involve analyzing different case studies to allow for comparative design. Use of more than one case study will provide more understanding thereby increasing reliability of the research (Hyett, Kenny, and Dickson-Swift, 2014). The cases used in the study are both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data will provide empirical understanding of the research problem. The quantitative study will enable understanding of performance difference in terms of cost and revenues between qualified practice managers and on job training practice managers (Hancock, and Algozzine, 2016). The case study design will therefore be the most appropriate because multiple sources of evidence will be applicable to understand and answer research questions. Case study design is also appropriate to its ability to answer the question “why.”
The framework shows a structure that the research will follow in answering the research question. The research questions shape the structure outlined for the study. The formulation of the main research question and the research sub questions that are important to answering the main research question. The research then undertakes literature review for the issues in the research question. The research main question is why it is important to have tertiary qualifications for practice managers in the healthcare. The main question will be answered by sub questions that include if practice management is recognized as a profession, if on job training for practice managers are better than tertiary qualification and the importance of qualified practice managers in the industry (Lewis, 2015). The literature review involves reviewing the role, importance, and recognition of practice management in healthcare. The research design is then designed to formulate research methodology that will outline data collection, analysis, and sample. The Case studies will be formulated that will be used to investigate why it is important for practice managers to have knowledge and skills in management.
The research will use two case studies. Both case studies will use privately owned hospitals that are based in Australia. One case study will involve a healthcare with practice managers who have been trained on job. In this case study, the practice manager will have no tertiary managerial qualifications. The practice managers will be physicians, doctors’ wives, or relatives but must not have any educational background on management. The second case study will be a private hospital with professional practice managers. The healthcare will have people holding management positions will have knowledge and skills in practice management.
The research study will use different sources for case study design. These sources will gather evidence that will be used to comparatively show different evidence on practice management. The method to be used will include interview and document analysis. Document analysis to be used in the research will be drawn from the organizations’ available data such as annual reports, sustainability policy, organizational structure, stakeholders, staffing, history, and other publications. The document analysis will provide information needed in analyzing the organizations’ management activities and capacity in practice management (Yin, 2017). The document analysis will also be important to helping the researcher understand and get familiar with the case organization. This will enable the researcher to be informed when conducting interviews. Interviews will be undertaken different stakeholders in the organizations selected. The interview will be semi structured interviews to practice managers, doctors, owners of the healthcares under study. Interviews will have 6 questions which are intended to take 30 minutes. All interviews will be recorded at the consent of the participant. Interview questions will be in relation to the role of the participant in healthcare and understanding of practice management.
The sample size will be selected randomly from the two healthcares.
Data collected with analyzed by qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. Qualitative data will be analyzed using SPSS application. Qualitative data analysis will standardize evidence collected from interviews and document. Quantitative data will be analyzed using Microsoft Excel software. The software will show the evidence in healthcare financial or cost performance.
The research uses only two case studies which is relatively small. The small size of participants and number of case study make the research less comprehensive. Secondly, the research being undertaken by one person can lead to research biasness. The research has qualitative analysis that will depend on the research judgment to make decisions.
From the research proposal, the research question to be answered by the research is why tertiary qualification is important for healthcare practice management. The research study aims to investigate importance practice managers having or being equipped with practice management skills. The main research question will be answered by answering the research sub questions. The research sub questions are; is the practice management a recognized profession, what are the benefits of practice management to industry, and is the on the job training better for practice management than tertiary qualification. The research sub-questions are specific to issues that can be tested in answering the main research question. The literature review show that practice managers have several roles in healthcare and are responsible to general running of the health care center. Practice managers plan, lead, staff, and control activities of a healthcare that increase efficiency and effectiveness in achieving excellent health care delivery. The reviewed literature also shows that there are benefits of having practice management qualifications. Practice managers are recognized as a profession and are regulated by AAMP and majority of stakeholders in the health care sector acknowledge their efforts towards successful healthcare administration. The research will use a case study research design. This research design will be used to answer the research question and provide evidence for information on the importance of tertiary qualification to a practice manager. The research data will be analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel for qualitative and quantitative data respectively.
References
Baskarada, S., 2014. Qualitative case study guidelines.
Bergeron, B.P., 2017. Performance management in healthcare: from key performance indicators to balanced scorecard. Productivity Press.
Blais, K., 2015. Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives. Pearson.
Bradler, C., Dur, R., Neckermann, S. and Non, A., 2016. Employee recognition and performance: A field experiment. Management Science, 62(11), pp.3085-3099.
Creswell, J.W. and Creswell, J.D., 2017. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Finkelman, A., 2015. Leadership and management for nurses: Core competencies for quality care. Pearson.
Ginter, P.M., 2018. The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Gopee, N. and Galloway, J., 2017. Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.
Hancock, D.R. and Algozzine, B., 2016. Doing case study research: A practical guide for beginning researchers. Teachers College Press.
Hyett, N., Kenny, A. and Dickson-Swift, V., 2014. Methodology or method? A critical review of qualitative case study reports. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 9(1), p.23606.
Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
Masters, K., 2015. Role development in professional nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Morton, P.G., Fontaine, D., Hudak, C.M. and Gallo, B.M., 2017. Critical care nursing: a holistic approach . Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Publication p. 1056.
Wager, K.A., Lee, F.W. and Glaser, J.P., 2017. Health care information systems: a practical approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons.
Yin, R.K., 2017. Case study research and applications: Design and methods. Sage publications.
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