Best Colleges for Hospital Administration

I am going to graduate as a dentist soon, after which I wish to work in hospital administration/ management. Which are the best universities/colleges for this discipline in India and abroad? Please guide me.

-----Aditi

Hospital Administration is concerned with planning, organising, staffing, coordinating, controlling and evaluating health services for the community to provide maximum care to patients. Today, most hospitals and nursing homes recruit professionals to handle human resources, marketing and medical billing among a host of other related duties.

With the Healthcare sector growing at 13%, there will be an increased requirement for trained professionals for efficient administration of state-of-the-art hospitals and clinics being set up across the country by large companies such as Apollo, Max, Fortis, Wockhardt, Tata and several others.

Hospital/health care management is taught in two-year, postgraduate diploma programmes, available to graduates in all disciplines, as well as to doctors, nurses, and paramedics. The programme combines training in management skills, management principles, accounting and business communication, along with specialised knowledge on the working of a hospital, marketing of hospital services, and logistics management. Students also get to know about basic healthcare and nutrition, prevention of communicable diseases, community health and other medical-related services. The Master's/ PG diploma in hospital management programme is designed to train students to become responsible managers who can take charge of the efficient running of hospitals. There are many universities and institutes offering this programme including:

• Panjab University, Chandigarh
• Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai
• Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore
• Tata Institute of Social Services, Mumbai
• Apollo Institute of Hospital Administration, Hyderabad
• Indian Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur
• Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal
• Symbiosis Centre of Health Care, Pune
• International Institute of Health Management Research, New Delhi

Some institutes specifically admit those with a medical background. These include the All India Medical Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and Delhi University's Faculty of Management Studies. Just as for other MBA programmes, selection is through an entrance test, a group discussion and an interview.

There are also distance-mode courses run by the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, (for MBBS candidates with two years' experience), and the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) which offers a PG diploma in health administration for graduates with some related experience.

There are any number of good courses in healthcare management in practically all countries, so it may be difficult to provide this information here. However, you may like to consider the cost of study and stay in a foreign country, given the fact that there is limited possibility of finding a job after training there.

Author: Usha Albuquerque (HT Horizons)

Date: 18th April, 2011