Health system administration

Healthcare management is the practice of providing leadership,

management, and direction to organisations that provide healthcare services
and to different units within those organisations. Healthcare management is
centred around three main concepts: effectiveness, efficiency, and equity.

Healthcare management is an umbrella term and some of the job positions

that fall within the scope of that term are Medical director, Clinical manager,
Nursing home administrator, Laboratory manager and Office manager. Health
managers carry out six core functions, namely planning, organising, staffing,
controlling, directing, risk-assessing, and decision-making. Health care
managers ensure that their organisation or department improves in efficiency,
financial strength, and service quality to ultimately deliver the best possible
care to patients.

Although healthcare facilities are essential in managing, maintaining, and

improving the health of citizens, health does not only happen within care
facilities. The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) described health as
being:

“…created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where
they learn, work, play and love. Health is created by caring for oneself and
others, by being able to take decisions and have control over one’s life
circumstances, and by ensuring that the society one lives in creates
conditions that allow the attainment of health by all its members”.