Clinical Administrator Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a clinical administrator. You can use our job description template in this article to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a clinical administrator.
Who is a Clinical Administrator?
A Clinical Administrator oversees medical institutions or divisions. They manage personnel, finances, and legal requirements. Clinical administrators may be in charge of the entire facility or just one department, depending on whether they operate in a small clinic or a major medical center. It might be advantageous to have prior expertise in the department’s area of specialties, such as oncology, surgery, or pediatrics, as clinical administrators are frequently engaged in the establishment of departmental goals.
Clinical administrators spearhead the daily operations of health and medical services in a clinic, private or group medical practice, hospital, rehabilitation facility, or nursing home. Additionally, you may serve in a teaching position for a consulting business, health insurance provider, public health division, or healthcare agency.
As a clinical administrator, you can manage the maintenance of medical supplies, invoice patients, adhere to regulations, monitoring staff schedules, or data. You may be in charge of one or more of these responsibilities depending on the size and kind of your work organization. Many clinical administrators also act as staff supervisors or liaisons to governing bodies, certain departments, and the medical staff. If you work in public health or consulting, you can concentrate on educating the public and people about general health issues and providing emergency services when a crisis arises.
The usage of technology in the healthcare sector is growing as it develops. This is because technology can aid patient care and make it simpler for medical professionals to perform their duties. Clinical administrators can benefit from this by learning how to employ the newest technologies in the workplace. This covers items like computerized physician order entry systems and electronic medical records. Clinical administrators should also emphasize honing their data analysis and management skills, which are becoming more and more crucial in the healthcare sector.
Clinical Administrator Job Description
Below are the clinical administrator job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The duties and responsibilities of the Clinical Administrator include the following:
- Help regulations or survey suggestions be implemented
- Oversee the division’s financial operations, including the processing of daily transactions, account reconciliation, production of regular reports, and upkeep of records and file systems.
- Create and manage program budgets for sponsored initiatives, private practice, endowments, contracts, and grants.
- Administer the unit’s personnel duties.
- Manage all designated subordinate employees.
- Develop and maintain a unit-wide communication program that is successful.
- Draft and keep up with relevant compliance plans.
- Check if plans are being followed and create status reports.
- Conduct audits, determine training and communication requirements, and put associated initiatives into action
- Ensure all policies and procedures are updated if there is a change in the law or an accrediting standard.
Qualifications
- A bachelor’s degree in a health-related discipline or business
- An advanced degree in business administration, health administration, or a closely related discipline (preferable by some firms)
- Years of experience in increasingly significant positions in the administration of healthcare services
- Certified in relevant programs and courses
Essential Skills
Here are the skills you require to excel in your career as a clinical administrator:
- Analytical
- Budgeting
- Business Operations
- Customer Service
- Collaboration
- Critical Analysis
- Communication
- Data Evaluation
- Leadership
- Legal Knowledge
- Problem-solving
- Technical Expertise
- Quality Assurance
Analytical
Maintaining the status quo is insufficient for a clinical administrator to succeed greatly. Successful clinical administrators analyze existing procedures and pinpoint potential areas for improvement while looking to the future. Analytical skill is the ability to grasp data, translate it into a precise analysis, and draw conclusions from changes, trends, distributions, and outliers. They are relevant for clinical administration.
Budgeting
Keeping the office stocked with all required supplies, from printer paper to surgical tools, is one of the most important duties of clinical administrators. Additionally, it suggests that they should be able to manage purchases while staying within a budget. To ensure that the office does not overspend while providing physicians and nurses with the tools they need to treat patients, this job necessitates combining strong organizational and financial skills.
Business Operations
Although a hospital or clinic may not be the first thing that comes to mind when someone discusses a company, competent clinical administrators should have a solid grasp of business fundamentals. One of the top skills required to be a clinical administrator is understanding business operations.
Clinical administrators are typically in charge of ensuring the company meets its productivity and financial goals to compete in the quickly growing healthcare industry. This requires leadership skills, business acumen, and strategic planning.
Customer Service
A clinical administrator should have a solid grasp of patient care and strong administrative and financial skills. Clinical administrators must adopt a comprehensive strategy that considers every facet of the patient’s entire experience, from making an appointment with the receptionist to parking at the medical facility to improve patient care.
The most zealous clinical administrators are also knowledgeable on the principles of illnesses, diseases, and injuries, and their symptoms, remedies, and preventative measures.
Collaboration
Clinical administrators must communicate with patients, doctors, nurses, families, emergency service personnel, insurance providers, and government regulators weekly. Teamwork is required because the job requires managing qualified specialists and explaining and carrying out complicated treatments and hospital procedures.
Clinical administrators are supposed to set their concerns aside to look out for the best interests of the patients, employees, and hospital.
Critical Analysis
Successful clinical administrators must have a variety of problem-solving skills. They keep their facilities updated with all local, state, and federal laws governing healthcare. Despite staffing shortages, low morale among the team members, and a lack of nurses, they ought to operate their healthcare facilities flawlessly. Above all, clinical administrators need to be adept problem solvers with solid reasoning skills.
Communication
Effective communication is necessary for practically every business. When conveying rules, processes, and personnel laws, communication is one of the fundamental abilities needed in healthcare administration.
Clinical administrators must be clear and upfront in their expectations, whether this communication takes place over the phone, by email, or in person. As a result, healthcare managers must be self-aware and conscious of their words and body language.
Data Evaluation
Data analysis is necessary for the healthcare industry to optimize existing healthcare data for more precise diagnosis and treatment. Clinical administrators must be able to collect and comprehend data to draw reliable conclusions. This does not imply that they must be skilled at creating machine-learning algorithms.
Given how heavily contemporary healthcare institutions rely on electronic patient record systems, there is a wealth of data that can be gathered, examined, and used to boost clinical effectiveness.
Leadership
Giving directions is only one part of being a good leader; the other is convincing others to make the right changes. Aspects of leadership include decision-making, strategic planning, and team-building.
Because it focuses on providing patient-centered treatment and managing highly sought-after specialists in a cutthroat environment, healthcare-specific leadership is essential. The healthcare system is extremely complex, and more so than other industries, it necessitates reaching an agreement among several stakeholders. Healthcare leadership should focus on transformation, execution, and people.
Legal Knowledge
Most clinical administrators’ labor is occupied with hospital health regulations, legal issues, and attorneys. Every daily or long-term administrative decision might have legal repercussions for doctors, staff, patients, and the hospital. Administrators must possess legal understanding while they acquire and analyze data, protect patient privacy, and follow regulatory guidelines to prevent legal action, accusations, and penalties.
Problem-solving
Clinical administrators must have strong problem-solving skills. Whether it is a medical emergency, a clinical problem, or an organizational disagreement, emergencies will unavoidably occur. These situations call for creative solutions, optimistic outlooks, and rapid reactions.
Even before a crisis arises, the finest managers should be able to recognize when something is going to go wrong. This enables them to begin debating remedies and reducing damage earlier and faster.
Technical Expertise
Clinical administrators need a wide range of technical abilities, including software and typing. They might need to be familiar with desktop software in general and electronic records management solutions for their everyday tasks. They should also be knowledgeable about the safe and appropriate use of cutting-edge medical technology.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is necessary to ensure that requirements are met. Clinical administrators establish these criteria and must also take action when they are not followed.
To get input, clinical administrators might utilize tools like patient comment cards and online reviews. Healthcare executives do this to foster an accountability culture that depends on dependable staff to identify and address issues before they become more serious problems.
How to Become a Clinical Administrator
Below are the steps to take to become a Clinical Administrator:
Step One: Acquire a Relevant Degree
You can acquire the information and abilities required to function successfully as a clinic administrator by earning a bachelor’s degree in health administration. You will gain knowledge on subjects, including patient care, facility management, healthcare management, and healthcare informatics. Once you have earned your degree, you will be qualified to supervise clinical and administrative staff members, hire new employees, train them, assign tasks, and schedule workers.
A master’s degree could also be required. This is crucial, especially if you’d like to work for larger institutions and earn more money. Don’t worry about spending a long time in school; you can earn a master’s degree in only two years. A few universities grant both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. This enables you to start your master’s immediately after you earn your bachelor’s degree.
Step Two: Get an Internship
During your final year of a bachelor’s or master’s degree program, you must do an internship. You will have the chance to work as a management or administrative intern by doing this. You will learn more about healthcare management via this experience and develop solid professional ties with other healthcare management staff members.
Step Three: Gain More Expertise
A one-year internship program is a maximum duration. As a result, it does not offer the quantity of experience required for a respectable position in clinical management. You should accept entry-level employment in a clinic or other healthcare organization that enables you to function in an administrative capacity. Before advancing to a more senior management role, you might start as an assistant manager. For better career possibilities, ensure you have at least three years of work experience.
Step Four: Apply for a Clinical Administrator Job
You can apply for clinical administrator roles in your state or anywhere in the nation after you have enough experience. Before you are employed, you must provide evidence of your academic distinction and complete background checks and drug tests. As soon as you start working, you’ll be required to take on various responsibilities, including hiring and training new hires, maintaining the workplace, leading staff meetings, developing operational schedules, making budgets, managing bills, and organizing marketing campaigns.
Step Five: Get a License
Some countries and states mandate clinic administrators, particularly those who work for long-term care institutions, get a license. They must update their licenses to keep their job by pursuing ongoing education or regular renewals.
Where to Work as a Clinical Administrator
Clinical administrators can work in places such as hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, and managed care companies. Although they may need to work evenings or weekends to attend meetings or be on call in case of emergencies, they normally perform a conventional 40-hour work week. Due to the demanding nature of their position and the need to make decisions that might influence patient care, clinical administrators may feel a lot of stress.
Clinical Administrator Salary Scale
The salary range for Clinical Administrators ranges from $59,270 to $79,115, with the average income being $67,968 in the United States.
In the UK, a clinical administrator makes an average pay of £23,608 per year or £12.11 per hour. The starting salary for entry-level is £21,285, while the average yearly salary for experienced professionals is £29,957.
In Canada, a clinical administrator makes an average income of CA$62,288.
Australia’s national average for clinical administrators is AU$71,585 per year or AU$36.71 per hour. Most experienced workers earn up to AU$98,079 yearly, while entry-level positions start at AU$64,146.
In Ireland, a clinical administrator makes an average annual salary of €37,000.
In Nigeria, the starting monthly salary for a clinical administrator is ₦122,000. Their mid-level salary is around ₦210,000.
Salary ranges can vary significantly based on various crucial aspects, including education, credentials, skills, and the length of time working in a given field.
