"The four functions of management in a health care setting are planning, leading, organizing, and controlling. These functions provide the basis...

1) Planning: Planning requires engaging in environmental scanning, or understanding the conditions of the organization, combined with setting long-term goals and/ or short-term objectives for the organization to meet based on these conditions and making plans for how to meet those goals. Whether working in a for-profit or non-profit setting, planning is needed to make sure the future of the organization remains bright. A good planner in the healthcare environment knows which areas it is most important to look ahead in. In the healthcare setting, goals could be created for better information systems, patient care, or office management—all of which should lead to greater efficiency, greater productivity, better optics/ PR, and ultimately more profits or funding.

2) Leading: Healthcare is a difficult profession, and medical professionals working in a managed setting need good leadership and guidance. Doctors need to be able to trust their needs will be met and that concerns about things like equipment, staff, or scheduling will be heard. It is absolutely critical for nurses and techs to feel heard and well-led in this setting, as they often feel overlooked. Having a strong and understanding leader guiding the "lower-level" employees will ensure they remain committed and attentive to their jobs. A good leader is one who will help make the long hours and difficult cases worth it.

3) Organizing: An organizer needs to be able to design their setting so their plans can be carried out properly. In healthcare management, this could include things like developing new jobs, redesigning current jobs to improve vertical integration, or increasing or reducing specialization of job assignments to improve productivity within departments. 

4) Controlling: Almost nothing is more important in healthcare than making and meeting standards. Standards are absolutely critical for the safety of both the staff and the patients. An effective healthcare manager must have a very, very strong understanding of both standards of patient care (including front office rapport, bedside manner, effectiveness with social workers) and basic standards of medicine itself, such as being able to understand if lab techs are getting sloppy or if a doctor is making a number of misdiagnoses.