Hospital Administration as an Emerging Specialty for Medical Graduates in India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Most hospitals in India are managed by senior clinicians who are not qualified in hospital administration. The role of qualified hospital administrators does not seem to be highlighted while planning human resources for healthcare services. Postgraduate seats in hospital administration are suboptimal considering the demand. The study aims to understand hospital administration as a specialty for medical graduates and obtain the opinions of healthcare professionals and medical students about hospital administration as a career specialization. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted for 12 months in two phases. Phase 1 comprised qualitative data collection through focused interviews with 25 medical doctors holding administrative responsibilities in hospitals to explore key domains relevant to the study objectives. The findings from these interviews informed the development and refinement of the study. Phase 2 involved a nationwide cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey administered to 574 healthcare professionals. Results: Phase 1 included focused interviews with medical doctors (n=25) having administrative roles in the hospitals. Subsequently, a pre-tested and pre-validated questionnaire-based national survey (n=574) among the healthcare professionals was conducted in Phase 2. Phase 1 highlighted the role of hospital administration in healthcare services in the Indian scenario, such as hospital operations, planning and designing, human resource management, legal and statutory aspects, quality and patient safety, and others. It also provided an insight into the career prospects and postgraduate courses available for doctors in hospital administration. Phase 2 consisted of a questionnaire-based survey among healthcare professionals, of which 49% were medical students. Using descriptive statistics, it was found that 71% of participants lacked adequate knowledge about hospital administration but were aware of it as a specialty. Only 6% of respondents correctly answered the question concerning hospital administration postgraduate degrees offered in India. Similarly, 56% of participants expressed their willingness to learn more about hospital administration. Conclusions: The specialty of hospital administration as a postgraduate professional course and the role of a hospital administrator were explored. The study concluded that hospital administration is an essential component for safe and quality healthcare services and necessitates doctors in an administrative role to be qualified in hospital administration. It was evident from the study that hospital administration has highly promising prospects in the future and most participants in the survey considered taking up the specialty as their career subject.