For a health care facility where everything is located in a central building, managing is far easier because everything is on-site. For our operation, where trained nurses, therapists and other aides visit homes of ill patients, managing the care of patients out of the facility, coordinating travel time and activities for our traveling specialists and in-home care-givers is a far more sophisticated task. Given four specifics of management- planning, organizing, leading, and controlling- my specific administrator's job is taxing, but at the same time rewarding. I, of course, report directly to the Board of Governor of the organization, letting them know periodically the progress of patient-care, of costs, of potential profitability, and of the success and occasional set-backs of our operations.
The planning begins with goal-setting. This means not merely setting goals of the numbers of in-home patients we serve, but making sure that every patient is well taken-care of, with no complaints from him, or her, or the patient's family. Our planning includes coordinating with the community, receiving new referrals fro physicians, and having sufficient staff on hand to handle all cases referred. We plan for proper use of time, for our bookkeeping and financial staffs to coordinate with health insurance companies, especially with Medicare and Medicaid and Medical, to handle proper payments for each of our patients. We plan for emergencies - that is, a sudden influx of new in-home patients which may require us to locate and hire- even if on a temporary basis - speech therapists, occupational and physical therapists, to deal with the community's social services.
Organizing our services and staff is also a sometimes-difficult challenge. We need to make sure that in-home calls are made on schedule, and to be advised if there is a reason for a delay, or if a nurse or therapist is at one home longer than required. Additionally, co...