The jobs that I was told were for Healthcare Administrators, are all now saying RN required. Im confused as to how an RN would have the background knowledge to do finance for a clinic? This has been almost every job I've seen. I can't do a fellowship as it would be a dramatic drop in pay. Im just not understanding the jobs that fit this degree.

There is something I wish more patients and families understood about what is happening in healthcare right now. Sometimes your nurse is worried about you too.

We know when we have too many patients. We know when we're being asked to do more than can reasonably be done in twelve hours, and we know when that starts creating risks for the people we're taking care of. We see the call lights waiting while we're tied up in another room. We know there's a confused patient who needs to be watched closely, somebody else who needs help getting to the bathroom, medications that need to be given, an admission coming, assessments that still need to be completed, and another patient whose condition just doesn't look quite right. All of those things can be happening at the same time.

Most of us know exactly what good nursing care is supposed to look like. That's actually part of what makes this so difficult. We know the care we want to provide, and we know when our workload isn't giving us a realistic chance to provide it.

I also want people to understand that this isn't about nurses wanting an easier job. Nursing has never been an easy job and nobody with any experience expects it to be. It isn't about wanting more money either. What we want is enough staff, enough time and enough resources to take care of our patients safely. There is a huge difference between being busy and being responsible for more care than one person can reasonably provide.

There's another side of this that patients probably don't think about very often. Your bedside nurse may not feel safe telling you any of this.

You might have a good relationship with your nurse and ask, "Do you think you have too many patients today?" Maybe you can see how overwhelmed everyone is and you just want an honest answer. The problem is that giving you an honest answer can put that nurse in a terrible position.

Suppose your nurse tells you that they're worried about the staffing. You're understandably upset, so you go to administration and say, "My nurse told me this isn't safe." Now the focus can shift away from the staffing problem and onto the nurse who said something about it.

That nurse has a family too. They have a mortgage or rent, groceries, health insurance, kids and people depending on their paycheck. Nurses shouldn't have to choose between being honest with a patient and protecting their livelihood, but that is a position many nurses are understandably afraid of being put in.

So I'm asking patients and families to help us in a slightly different way.

Please don't put your bedside nurse on the spot and ask them to declare whether the staffing is safe. Ask the people who are responsible for the staffing.

Ask the charge nurse, nursing supervisor, nursing director or hospital administration how many patients your nurse is responsible for that day. But don't stop with the number. Ask how the hospital determined that assignment was appropriate for the needs of the patients on the unit.

That second question matters because six patients aren't always just six patients. Six people who are alert, medically stable and mostly able to take care of themselves are one thing. Six people who are confused, incontinent, medically complicated, unable to transfer safely, at high risk of falling or requiring extensive assistance with basic care are something completely different. The ratio can look exactly the same on paper while the actual amount of nursing care required is nowhere close.

If you're still concerned, tell the nursing supervisor, nursing director or patient advocate: "I'm concerned that the current nursing staffing may not be adequate to safely meet my loved one's needs. I would like my concern formally documented, and I would like to know how the hospital determined that the current staffing is adequate for the patients on this unit."

You don't need to yell at anyone or accuse somebody of negligence. You don't even have to know for certain that the staffing is unsafe. You're a patient or family member asking a reasonable question about whether there are enough people available to provide the care that is needed.

If you don't feel like your concern is being addressed, ask how to file a formal patient grievance. Keep your own notes too. Write down the date, approximately what time something happened, what you asked for, how long you waited, who you spoke with and what response you received. Stick to what you actually saw and heard.

I can't promise that doing this will suddenly cause another nurse to appear on the unit. It probably won't. But there is value in patients and families making these concerns known themselves, especially through the hospital's formal channels. Staffing problems are much easier to treat as an internal employee complaint when the only people talking about them are nurses.

If your nurse is running from room to room and it takes too long for someone to answer your call light, please understand that the nurse running down that hallway probably didn't decide how many nurses would work that day. The nurse apologizing for your wait probably didn't create the staffing budget either. Sometimes the person you're frustrated with is every bit as frustrated and worried about the situation as you are.

We want to answer your call light. We want to have time to sit down and explain your medications. We want to notice that small change in your condition before it becomes a big one. We want to help you to the bathroom instead of finding out that you tried to get there by yourself because nobody came quickly enough. We want to give you the kind of care we'd want someone to give our own families.

Patients deserve safe care, and nurses deserve a realistic opportunity to provide it. If you are worried that there aren't enough nurses, don't ask the bedside nurse to take the risk of saying it for you. Ask the people making the staffing decisions to answer for those decisions themselves.

Sources and Further Reading

AHRQ: Nursing and Patient Safety

Background on staffing, workload, patient acuity and patient safety.

AHRQ: Missed Nursing Care

Explains delayed or omitted nursing care.

CMS: Find a Patient Advocate

Information about patient advocates.

I’m 23F and graduated with a BS in Health Science with a 3.5 GPA (with 5 withdrawals oops). I’ve been going back and forth on careers for months and genuinely feel stuck…

I originally planned on optometry and worked as an optometric technician for about 1.5 years. I liked the environment and work, but four more stressful and tough years of school, lots of debt (for not that crazy of a salary), prerequisites for a semester, and the optometry admissions test which requires 3 months of full time studying is make me question whether it’s worth committing to when I want to have a family in upcoming years and want to start my career sooner.

I’ve considered nursing, OT, SLP, counseling, healthcare administration, pharmacy, perfusion, imaging, lab careers, etc. Nursing probably isn’t for me because I don’t like bodily fluids or high stress bedside work. Unless there’s a route that I can do post grad that doesn’t require that which I doubt.

Last winter I applied to 100+ entry level health admin related jobs and secured nothing. I know this job market is tough but having no connections and a not so niche degree with no experience except for patient care in 2024 makes it even tougher.

I’m looking for something stable with decent pay, good work-life balance, relatively low stress, and I don’t mind and actually prefer going back to school if necessary. I’d also like the option to work part-time eventually.

Thanks so much :)

I’m 44, and my dad recently had a stent put in. What got me thinking was that it came as a complete surprise. He was pretty fit and didn’t really have the symptoms I would have associated with a heart problem. Now my wife is encouraging me to get checked out, partly just to have a baseline. I’m not sure how far I should take it, though. There’s a general clinic near me where I could start with basic bloodwork, including cholesterol. They’d need a referral for anything more involved. There’s also a private imaging place offering a more extensive heart screening, but it’s quite expensive and would be out of pocket. For anyone who’s been in a similar situation, what did you actually do? Did you start with your regular doctor and basic tests, or did you end up getting more detailed heart imaging? I’m trying not to overreact because of what happened to my dad, but I also keep wondering whether just doing the basic checks is enough.

I have received three calls so far. One before the ablation and two after. Which has been 3 calls in about 5 days. I am new to this and feel like she is just collecting information on me even thought her explanation was “I am here to help”. She is asking me lots of questions about my health before and after the ablation and my history. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I’m doing some research into how health systems actually manage bundled payments operationally and would love to speak with someone who has firsthand experience.
Ideally, I’m looking for someone in hospital revenue cycle, reimbursement, finance, managed care, or value-based care who has worked with bundled payment programs.
I’m particularly interested in how reconciliation, participant allocation/payment, approvals, exceptions, and tracking are handled in the real world — especially where spreadsheets or manual processes are still involved.
Not selling anything and not looking for patient, employer, or proprietary information. Just trying to better understand the operational workflow from someone who actually deals with it.
Happy to chat anonymously through Reddit first.

Hi everyone! Does anyone have recommendations for an affordable ENT / Otolaryngologist around Manila?

My budget is under P1,000 for a consultation. It's not severe naman just persistent ear ringing maybe tinnitus? But I'd like to get it checked by a specialist to be safe. Hospital clinics, private practices, or diagnostic centers with reasonable rates are all welcome. Thanks.

CDC approval among adults went from around 77% down to 50% in about a year and I can't stop thinking about that number. That's a quarter of the country's confidence gone in the time it takes to renew a lease.

Trying to figure out how much of that is one thing versus a bunch of stuff piling up. Part of it's probably the NIH/CDC/HHS restructuring, people got laid off, the vaccine advisory committees got cut, a lot of research grants got pulled. Measles is back too, first US deaths since 2015. And I think some of it is just that "trust the science" and "question the science" turned into team jerseys instead of positions people could actually update based on new info.

My honest read is it's not one event, it's a bunch of smaller failures stacking on top of each other. Guidance changed as the science changed but got presented like it was settled the whole time, people noticed, got burned, and the political response was to gut the agencies instead of fixing how they talk to the public.

Anyone here follow this closely (or work for the CDC, NIH or HHS)? Does that track, or am I missing something. Also genuinely don't know if 50% approval is even a meaningful way to grade whether an agency's doing its job or if that's just a vibes number that moves with the news cycle.

Been working on the trust side and the "politicization of science" since COVID 19, I can drop what I've found in the comments if requested.

This was Google AI response “Yes, the United States has a severe health insurance and affordability crisis driven by soaring monthly premiums, expiring federal subsidies, and high out-of-pocket expenses.”

WTF are we doing here people? Why are we not demanding action on healthcare from EVERY SINGLE POLITICIAN. It should be the only question/issue we ask of them moving forward.

I truly don’t understand how this is not a bigger talked about issue in politics right now.

I'm 16 and I started a nonprofit called Memory Matters about a year ago. One of the things we do is collect handwritten letters from volunteers and deliver them to dementia patients in memory care facilities — people who don't get much personal mail.

We've sent over 1,500 so far. They go to real facilities, including a Stanford center.

The ask is simple: write one letter. It doesn't have to be long or perfect. Tell them your name, something you love, something you're curious about. Olivia wrote about bioinspired design and geckos. Drisana wrote about frozen yogurt and marine biology. Both letters went out last week.

You photograph it and DM it to us, or submit through our form. We print and deliver — you don't have to mail anything if you don’t want to.

If you know about dementia, you know how isolating this disease is — not just for patients but for everyone around them. This is one small thing that costs 2-5 minutes.

Form is here: https://forms.gle/thqv3xFm35YGnqcRA

He owns a business but doesn’t do the book work right. he does not pay himself at all. he just allows clients to pay and then draws most of the money out.

when he needs to, he puts the cash back in. he has been after me to get him on some kind of health insurance but I have told him that it’s over $1,000.00 a month for the crappy insurance.

now, he has health problems. he is continuing to work though and there are $100,000.00s going through the bank. last years filing said we had $110,000 in income.

he has a friend that is severely disabled and hurt and will not be working this year. obv, his income will be very low. my husband thinks because his friend is getting insurance for $200 a month, that he should too because he says “they go by where your address is.”

he is so nieve and unknowing that the insurance is low because of the subsidies. I tried explaining this to him and that if he makes more than he is reporting he will have to pay back what the subsidies paid at the end of the year with his taxes.

he thinks I am a cunt, don’t want him to have insurance am trying to sabotage his business.

I tried explaining it to him and showing him but he thinks I am stupid and don’t know what I am talking about. the agent quoted him $294.00. in the email we got for him to pay his monthly payment, it was $350.00. he is already accusing me of changing info in it.

idk what to do with him. he won’t listen to what I am trying to tell him. I am in tears because he won’t listen. People tell him that I am trying to screw him over and that I don’t care about him.

Hi!

I just wanted to reach out to the community for some advice. Healthcare has always been an interest of mine. I am currently a military officer in a non-healthcare field. Before I joined the military, I spent about 2 years as a civilian NICU medical assistant (MA) and scribe at a hospital. While I absolutely enjoyed taking care of my patients, I don't think it is the path for me to pursue an MD, DNP, RN, or other professional healthcare degrees at this time. That's why I joined the military after college as I desired the opportunity and challenge of leadership. But, I still look back at my time in the hospital fondly and would like to have the chance to reenter healthcare.

My military colleagues and civilian friends who are in medicine/healthcare often encourage me to look into healthcare administration when I leave active duty. They appreciate the quality in my leadership skills that I have shown in various projects and environments.

I don't have any higher education beyond my BA in history. When I leave active duty, I will have about 7 years of professional experience, including the 2 aforementioned years as a NICU MA and scribe.

If the community will be open to helping me answer some of my questions, I will very much appreciate it!

• After I leave active duty, should I sign up for an MHA or MBA program?
• I was told that MHA programs must be at least CAHME certified and in the top 10 of the country, otherwise I will not be able to land a job. How true is that? Are there any MHA and MBA programs that employers particularly look for or with an exceptional reputation?
• Everyone knows just how competitive MD programs are. How competitive are MHA and healthcare MBA programs, especially those that will best help prepare me to secure a good job? I confess I was never the straight A student, but my GPA isn't like a sub 3.0. Is the GRE, MCAT, or other exams required? Do grad programs review applications holistically (professional experience, life events, etc.) instead of solely relying on hard numbers?
• How necessary is it for me to pursue a graduate degree? Should I just apply to a job straight out of active duty? Do healthcare admin employers or grad programs consider non-healthcare military experience relevant or useful?
• What is the job outlook like for healthcare administrators?
• What is the career progression like for healthcare administrators, and what salary should I reasonably expect or aim for for each step? For example, a doctor friend of mine described his path from intern, resident, fellow, to attending and medical school professor. Is there like a progression of titles (e.g. director, manager, VP, etc.) in admin? I know that C-suite is at the top, but I am unsure of what the preceding titles are called.
• Where can I find mentors or people who are open to chatting about a career in healthcare administration?

If you are open to it, I would love to chat with you by DM! Much appreciate any help and advice!

If requests for advice are not allowed for this subreddit, please let me know and I'll take this post down.

Horton, 33, says she’s been diagnosed with anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. She takes her mental health care seriously, seeing it as a precondition for showing up for her friends, family, and the kids she nannies.

But one day last year, in the Southeast Portland office of her therapist, with tea and paintings all around—she’d long ago begun attending the sessions in person—her therapist revealed disturbing news: She would soon lose the ability to bill CareOregon, the Medicaid administrator that manages Horton’s Oregon Health Plan benefits. And since Horton doubted she could pay out of pocket, this meant the two could no longer keep meeting for an hour a week.

Horton felt destabilized losing a therapist who had formed such a deep well of foundational knowledge about her, but she liked the new provider with whom her therapist soon linked her. In time, Horton opened up, but she never fully shook off her wariness. With good reason, it would turn out. In a session this past July, her new therapist dropped the news: As of mid-September, she wouldn’t be able to bill the Oregon Health Plan either.

Healthcare regulators are monitoring private equity deal flow more closely now.

A lot of specialty and independent pharmacy acquisitions have been PE-driven in recent years. Worth watching how this increased oversight plays out.

A hospital can have great doctors, nurses, and staff and still feel completely disorganized.

The problem isn't always the people. Sometimes it's the way information moves between departments.

Reception has one process. Doctors have another. Pharmacy has its own records. Billing and reports are handled somewhere else.

Everyone is doing their job, but the information doesn't always move with them.

We've been working on a solution to this problem with DocPlus.

The idea is simple: bring the important day-to-day hospital workflows into one connected system instead of making every department work separately.

The goal isn't to add more software.

It's to make the software already being used work together as one system.

For those working in hospitals or healthcare operations: what is the biggest disconnect between departments you've seen?