Scope of Healthcare Management Jobs in India

March 24, 2010- The healthcare industry in India is growing at a rate of about 15% per year. As such, the scope for healthcare careers in India has grown significantly. The most important aspect of healthcare management jobs in India seen in the recent years is that the healthcare sector now is not only limited to the opportunities for doctors but the other areas in healthcare management are also growing. It is expected that the growth rate of healthcare management jobs will almost double in the next 1-2 years time which will make it a core sector in the employment arena.

Reasons for Growth of Healthcare Management Jobs

The growth of healthcare management sector in India can be attributed to a variety of factors.

• Liberalization has made way for corporate world to enter into the healthcare industry that has created many new healthcare management careers opportunities.
• Now every city witnesses the growth of hospitals in its every corner. This has created a significant gap in demand and supply of trained healthcare staff. For example, In NCR itself, more than 15 new hospitals will be opened in the next couple of years that will create thousands of healthcare jobs.
• A study by Ernst & Young and KPMG states that India will need to add around 1 lakh beds every year for the next 20 years so that it can meet its healthcare needs. It also estimates that each bed can create 5 direct and 25 indirect healthcare jobs.
• Hospitals today have become state-of-the-art healthcare facilities providers. Therefore, they need highly skilled and trained healthcare management professionals.
• The growth of medical tourism in India has also contributed towards creation of new healthcare careers.

Profile of Healthcare Management Jobs

Direct jobs in healthcare sector include the traditional profiles of doctors, nurse and other such health care careers. The new and other indirect jobs in healthcare sector include such job openings as those for team managers to supervise HR, marketing, health information, medical billing and such other departments. All that is needed to enter in healthcare careers is a healthcare administration degree. As far as growth opportunities of healthcare professionals are concerned, a hospital administrator can rise upto the ladder to be a CEO or the head of the department. If ambitious, one can establish one's own hospital over time with extended experience gained throughout his/her career. However, this is not the regular nine-to-five job. Also one should be enough responsible, innovative, compassionate, and highly motivated apart from being able to work for long hours.

The recent trend in healthcare sector witnesses medical students going for obtaining a healthcare management degree and about 50% of healthcare management students are doctors. Many pharma companies as well as consumer healthcare and medical devices companies these days prefer to hire doctors as brand managers who generally rise up the ladder to become marketing directors, medical directors, and managing directors.

Healthcare Management Degree and Career Scope

A healthcare management programme teaches management principles in finance, operations, communications and in other areas specific to health care industry. Any graduate or post graduate from such backgrounds as medicine, life sciences, micro biology, pharmacy, biotechnology, nursing, physiotherapy, veterinary science, paramedics etc. can apply for getting a healthcare management degree. The degree 'MBA Healthcare Management' can, apart from jobs in hospitals can make one eligible for getting jobs in pharmaceutical companies, credit rating firms, NGOs, health insurance companies, e-health ventures etc. Students with a degree in healthcare management can also have job opportunities in medical tourism industry.

At present, about 40 lakh people are employed for health management jobs and this sector is growing at a 15% rate per year. This tells us the wide scope that healthcare management industry presents in India in the near future.

Know more about careers in Hospitals Health Care