Clinic managers: What is a Clinical Manager?

What is a Clinical Manager?

Distinct from hospitals and other medical facilities, clinics are small and moderately sized healthcare locations that primarily provide outpatient services. Outpatient clinics typically service a wide variety of patients, offering everything from mental health to urgent care services. As a clinical manager, you’re responsible for the continued staffing, budgeting, and operations of your clinic.

All medical clinic employees report to a clinical manager, who spends their time ensuring that all aspects of the medical clinic contribute to high-quality patient care. You’ll keep a medical clinic running smoothly at all times, no matter the nature of the care your outpatient facility provides.

If you thrive in a healthcare environment and enjoy employee and business management, you could fit well into the career of a clinical manager.

A clinical manager maintains responsibility for all administrative aspects of a clinical facility. Daily, you might be responsible for onboarding new employees, training existing employees, auditing clinic operations, establishing a budget, reviewing treatment plans, or communicating with executives.

The career of a clinical manager is not a specialized role. In general, you can become a clinical manager after obtaining an undergraduate degree from an accredited four-year college or university. However, before assuming a managerial role you’ll likely need at least a few years of experience in a relevant healthcare field.

Learn about Degree Options

A clinical manager can fulfill a wide range of responsibilities each day. You will need to split your time between employee communication and basic administrative duties, to ensure that your medical clinic operates to a high standard.

In general, clinic managers are expected to satisfy the following responsibilities:

• Managing facility operations to ensure long-term success and connect patients with optimal treatment modalities.
• Hiring new staff and releasing staff members when necessary.
• Training existing employees in any new policies, procedures, or standards to be implemented across the entire clinic.
• Analyzing data trends, including any correlation between treatment types and patient outcomes, to develop a better understanding of overall facility efficiency.
• Organizing clinical records, patient health records, and other essential documents and resources.
• Solving patient problems in a way that complements the mission of your clinic.
• Implementing any updates in healthcare standards.
• Communicating with clinic employees, including all medical professionals, fellow managers, directors, and executives.

These and other responsibilities keep a clinical manager busy each day, no matter the nature of your outpatient clinic.

Before you can begin a career as a clinical manager, you’ll need to complete a few educational steps. Clinic managers come from a variety of other roles, both clinical and administrative, and may begin their journey to management with a bachelor’s degree in one of these related fields.

To prepare for the role of a clinic manager, you will also likely need to earn an advanced degree that combines both business and management training with healthcare leadership principles. A Master of Health Leadership degree or an MBA in healthcare management fosters skills in several key areas, including value-based care, healthcare systems, risk management, and health information technology, which will be essential for success in the clinical manager role. When determining the right healthcare leadership degree for you, consider your desired role.

Master of Health Leadership

A master’s focused on managing comprehensive, value-based care,…

A master’s focused on managing comprehensive,…

A master’s focused on managing comprehensive, value-based care, directly in line with innovations in health and healthcare.

• Time: 78% of grads finish within 18-24 months. 
• Tuition and fees: $4,240 per 6-month term.

Examples of careers and jobs this degree will prepare you for:

• Managed care executive
• Director of integrated care management
• Health center manager/clinic manager
• Director of integrated facilities

Your rich experience in a health-related field can mean more when you bring a master’s level of understanding to the problems that organizations need to solve.

Compare degrees
This program is not the only degree WGU offers designed to create leaders in the field of healthcare. Compare our health leadership degrees by clicking the button below.

Compare Similar Degrees

MBA Healthcare Management

Prepare for a career leading private or public healthcare…

Prepare for a career leading private or public. ..

Prepare for a career leading private or public healthcare organizations.

• Time: Graduates can finish within 12 months.
• Tuition: $4,530 per 6-month term.

Some careers and jobs this business degree will prepare you for:

• President and CEO
• Vice president
• Administrative director
• Chief financial officer
• Other executive-level roles

Healthcare is big business in today’s complex economy.  Steer your career with this specialty MBA.

Compare online business degrees

This program is not the only online business degree WGU offers that is designed to create leaders in the field of healthcare. Compare our health leadership degrees by clicking the button below.

Compare Similar Degrees

Next Start Date

Start the 1st of any month—as soon as you complete enrollment!

Apply Today

No need to wait for spring or fall semester.

It’s back-to-school time at WGU year-round. Get started by talking to an Enrollment Counselor today, and you’ll be on your way to realizing your dream of a bachelor’s or master’s degree—sooner than you might think!

Learn about online college admissions at WGU.

Compare Degree Options

There are many degree options to choose from. Compare them to find the best fit for you.

Compare Degrees

As a clinical manager, you will depend on a developed skill set. Whether you’re communicating with team members or reviewing your clinic’s finances, your skills as a clinical manager will define success.

Each day, a clinical manager might need one or more of the following skills:

• Healthcare management: The ability to ensure efficient healthcare operations at your clinic.
• Staffing: The ability to hire new clinic employees, fully onboard them into your existing staffing, and release employees whenever necessary.
• Interpersonal communication: The ability to correspond effectively with everyone in a clinical environment.
• Adaptability: The ability to shift priorities whenever necessary, addressing pressing needs as they develop.
• Data analysis: The ability to draw helpful conclusions from data sets to benefit future clinic operations and patient care.

• Technological proficiency: The ability to successfully use all clinic technology, including any computers, tablets, phones, patient electronic health records, medical technology, and online platforms.
• Team leadership: The ability to lead a clinical healthcare team toward improved operations, while leading by example.
• Budgeting: The ability to appropriately manage a clinic’s finances in a way that sustains both short and long-term success.
• Risk management: The ability to identify and mitigate any potential risks to the success of your clinic.

These and other skills allow clinical managers to support the operations of any medical clinic and to consistently pair patients with the right level of care.

How Much Do Clinical Managers Make?

$71,824

The exact income of a clinical manager can vary, based on a variety of factors that include your employer, employer’s location, employer’s public or private funding, years of experience, and education.

The salary of a clinic manager can average $71,824, with a range of roughly $49,000 to $99,000 earned each year.

What Is the Projected Job Growth?

32%

Among other reasons to obtain your healthcare management degree, the role of a clinical manager allows you to enjoy a career with a bright outlook. From 2019 to 2029, employment for health services managers, in general, is expected to increase by 32%. This growth rate is much higher than the average expected growth across all occupations.

Aging populations are expected to require long-term care in greater numbers. This increase in required patient care should cause a parallel increase in required clinical managers, who possess the expertise to help clinics balance new workloads.

Where Do Clinical Managers Work?

On-site

Often, clinical managers work directly on-site at their employer’s place of business. Because a clinical manager needs to continually understand how his or her clinic is operating, it’s easiest if they have a desk near other clinic employees.

Ultimately, the location where you work will be largely determined by the type of clinic where you find employment. These locations can include urgent care clinics, reproductive health clinics, mental health clinics, ambulatory surgery clinics, oncology clinics, or independent medical or research clinics.

Clinical Manager FAQ’s

The average salary for clinical managers is $71,824. The pay range is approximately $49,00 to $99,000. 

The role of a clinical manager in most settings is primarily administrative and may not require you to be a nurse.  Clinical managers must have appropriate education that allows them to perform the necessary parts of the job and may require experience in a clinic or other healthcare field depending on the setting. Clinical managers may also need to be licensed to work in some types of settings. See your state’s guidelines for details. 

Interested in Becoming a Clinical Manager?

Learn more about degree programs that can prepare you for this meaningful career.

View Degree Programs

What is a Clinic Manager?

• Career Guides
• Interviews
• Prep
• what is a clinic manager

Build A Resume Now

A Clinic Manager works to ensure the smooth running of a medical clinic or outpatient facility. They take on administrative and sometimes medical duties, to include managing clinic staff and overseeing day-to-day management operations. They lead healthcare facilities of all sizes, making sure they are successful and efficient.

Clinic Managers are in a leadership position, and the amount of staff under their direction depends on the size of the clinic or facility. Their duties range from hiring and training staff to developing budgets. As an increasing number of healthcare facilities open around the country, more Clinic Manager positions will likely become available over the next few years.

Interested in a cover letter? Our cover letter builder walks you step-by-step through the process of writing your own. With pre-written text suggestions for every section of your letter, writer’s block will be a thing of the past.

Clinic Manager Duties and Responsibilities

In their role of administrative management of a healthcare facility, Clinic Managers perform a wide variety of tasks. After an analysis of several job listings, we have identified these primary Clinic Manager duties and responsibilities.

Staffing

Clinic Managers are responsible for assessing the staffing needs of a clinic and determining when new staff are needed. They then interview candidates, hire new clinic employees and train them to meet clinic requirements.

Staff Management

In addition to bringing on new staff, the Clinic Manager also manages and supports the existing staff at a clinic. They manage their performance, provide organizational reviews, and mediate any issues that may arise.

Budgeting

As administrators, Clinic Managers plan the short- and long- term budgets for the clinic. They then must diligently ensure that budgets are being followed and that the clinic’s fiscal needs are being met.

Develop Plans and Systems

The Clinic Manager is responsible for developing business plans for the clinic. They also look for new ways to organize staff and implement systems to maximize productivity in the workplace and meet objectives.

Clinic Manager Skills

There are many traits and skills that a successful Clinic Manager should have, but above all they should be a strong leader. They need to be able to lead large groups of people to meet objectives, to provide exceptional care, and at the same time lead a successful business. Strong decision making skills are also crucial in this job. They need to be able to balance multiple responsibilities and prioritize what needs to be done. Clinic Managers should be analytic thinkers who can look at an organization and come up with solutions to make it more productive and successful. Along with these general skills and personality traits, Clinic Managers should also have the following skills.

Core skills A review of job listings for Clinic Managers showed us that employers are looking for applicants with these core skills. Aspiring Clinic Managers should focus on the following

• Previous medical office experience
• Understanding of the ethics of confidentiality
• Strong spoken and written communication skills
• Customer service experience
• Knowledge of the rationale of appropriate patient care

Advanced skills The below skills are not required by most employers of Clinic Managers, but many of them listed these as preferred skills for applicants. If you have these skills under your belt, you are a great candidate for Clinic Manager.

• Previous supervisory experience
• Experience with assessments and employee management
• Experience with medical informatics.

Tools of the trade With the wide range of responsibilities that Clinic Managers have on their plates, it is not surprising that there are a wide variety of tools that they use in the course of their work. If you are interested in becoming a Clinic Manager, make sure you are proficient in the use of the following tools

• Computer systems
• Data Entry procedures including EMR, Microsoft Excel and Word
• Computerized billing/registration systems

• GO

  PRO

  Choose from fully customizable

• GET PAST THE

  BOTS

  Ensure compatibility with Applicant Tracking Systems

• LOOK YOUR

  BEST

  Save time with sleek and stylish professional design templates

Build Your Resume

Clinic Manager Skills

Clinic Managers are usually paid an annual salary. In the United States, Clinic Managers make a median annual salary $94,500. The lowest paid 10 percent of Clinic Managers only make less than $56,230 per year, but the highest 10 percent may earn more than $165,380 annually. For high wages, the best place to be a Clinic Manager in the U.S. is the District if Columbia, where they earn a median salary of $121,620. Other well-paid states for Clinic Managers are California and New York, where they make median salaries of $117,660 and $113,640, respectively.

Clinic Manager Resources

To provide you with all the information you need to pursue a career as a Clinic Manager, we searched the web and found these great resources. From insightful blogs to industry organizations, there are tons of great links here to help you on the job hunt.

On the Web

Modern Healthcare Blog

This blog, published by the publication Modern Healthcare, covers a large range of topics of relevance to a Clinic Manager, including the business side of Healthcare and changes to the Healthcare system.

Healing Hospitals

While its focus is on hospitals, the issues covered in this blog by Dr. Nicholas Jacobs, apply to the management of Clinics, as well. He talks about hospital administration, medical errors and health reform topics.

Profitable Practice

This incredibly helpful blog will help you use software to make a clinic more profitable, efficient and successful.

Industry Groups

The American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM)

AAHAM is the leading professional organization for Healthcare Administrative Managers, including Clinic Mangers. It aims to provide education, certification, networking, and advocacy.

American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)

ACHE has regional chapters that offer local educational programs, career and advancement tools, plus great opportunities to volunteer and network with other local with healthcare leaders.

Health Care Administrators Association (HCAA)

HCAA is a very resource for healthcare administrators to stay on top of the latest news in the industry and exchange information with other administrators.

Clinic Manager Books

Introduction To Health Care Management

Read through this concise guide for an introduction into the principles of healthcare management, such as ethics, cost management, strategic planning and marketing, information technology, and human resources.

Leveraging Lean in Outpatient Clinics: Creating a Cost Effective, Standardized, High Quality, PatientFocused Operation

This book is focuses on the business and management of a outpatient clinic, offering process and quality improvements to make for a more streamlined and affective organization.

Clinic Manager Resume Help

Explore these related job titles from our database of hundreds of thousands of expert-approved resume samples:

Clinic
Manager

Operation
Manager

Banquet
Manager

Profession: medical manager in a private clinic

January 18, 2018

HR-tv. ru

What does the clinic expect from a medical manager these days? What are the specifics of the organizational work of this manager, Timur Khaidarov, a plastic surgeon and leading specialist of the clinic, told the portal HR-tv.ru.

Today it is impossible to imagine such a sphere as private medicine without competent management. The service market is overcrowded, there is quite a lot of competition, both between plastic surgeons and between private medical institutions. nine0003

Video of the day

Therefore, the task of the manager is to facilitate the work of the clinic and the staff working in it. In addition, in our time it is not enough to be a good specialist, you need to present yourself correctly. And if we are talking about a clinic, then also develop a business, which is the responsibility of a manager, not a doctor.

The task of a manager in a private clinic is to ensure the joint and effective work of all staff: doctors, administrators, nurses, etc. The profession of a doctor in a sense implies autonomy: you must admit that a doctor can advise, treat on his own and make a profit. Yes, he needs modern equipment: he is unlikely to place an X-ray machine or ultrasound equipment at home. If a doctor operates, in addition to the equipment, he needs an operating room, assistants, an anesthetist, etc. He cannot operate at home like Professor Preobrazhensky from The Heart of a Dog, no matter how many rooms he has allocated for an examination room and a dining room. Therefore, it is more convenient, more correct, better to work, of course, in a clinic, where many organizational issues that the manager decides will be removed from him. nine0003

There is another problem: doctors often change clinics in search of a better place, so another manager’s task is to organize the work of a medical institution in such a way that it brings significant profit to everyone who works there, which means that he must look for new clients, investors, deal with technical matters.

A good manager in a private clinic is not necessarily a person with a medical education, just education does not play a role here. This is a comprehensively developed person with an active life position, quite creative, able to make decisions, responsible, with good organizational skills. He is directly responsible for the interaction between the doctor and the patient. Both are important for him: both the specialist and the client. He understands that the face of the clinic is the professionals who work in it. After all, the key to the success of any medical institution is high-quality services and a trusting relationship between a doctor and his patients. nine0003

The manager of the clinic is not a salesperson, but rather a head of various departments, a manager. He knows how to speak well, smooth out sharp corners, offer new ideas, look for clients, ensure the comfort of staff.

This is not the job of an administrator who makes an appointment with a specialist, this is a much more interesting and profitable position – today the salary of a manager in a private clinic is 60-100 plus a percentage: if the doctor and the clinic as a whole make good money, then the manager does not stay in charge. On average, a manager’s income can be up to 200 thousand or more per month. As for career growth, having learned how to manage a clinic, a manager may well rise to a director. nine0003

Photo Pixabay

Other,

Legal Clinic of MTM Institute | Institute of International Transport Management

Legal clinic

State University of Sea and River Fleet named after Admiral S.O.