Health Management
Summary
Health management encompasses the systematic application of planning, organisation, staffing, leadership and control to health systems and programmes in order to achieve defined objectives in quality, access, efficiency and equity. It integrates core public-health functions—such as needs assessment, surveillance, prevention and health‐systems research—with conventional management activities to ensure that resources are deployed where they will have greatest impact. Managers in health and medical organisations occupy formal positions of authority; their span of control ranges from front-line supervisors overseeing small teams to senior executives shaping institutional strategy. Effective management requires clarity of roles and reporting relationships, disciplined coordination of functions, transparent accountability for outcomes, and continuous adaptation to changing epidemiological, demographic and technological environments. In practice this means maintaining supply chains for medicines and equipment, deploying suitably trained workforce cadres, structuring clinical and administrative processes to avoid duplication and delay, enforcing policies and regulations, and monitoring performance through robust information systems. As health systems contend with ageing populations, rising non-communicable disease burdens and emergent digital technologies, health managers must also foster intersectoral collaboration, lead change initiatives and safeguard professional standards and patient safety.
Research from Nature Portfolio
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Health Management publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in health management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Health management: The application of administrative and leadership functions—planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling—to coordinate resources, services and information within health systems.
Stock-and-flow model: A quantitative framework that simulates workforce supply by modelling inflows (training, immigration) and outflows (retirement, attrition) over time.
Needs-based approach: A planning method that estimates workforce requirements according to population health needs rather than historical service volumes alone.
Span of control: The number of subordinates directly reporting to a manager, influencing its capacity for supervision and coordination.
Multitasking and interruptions: Concurrent engagement in multiple tasks and unexpected events diverting attention from primary duties, often degrading efficiency and safety.
References
- Methods for health workforce projection model: systematic review and recommended good practice reporting guideline. Human Resources for Health (2024).
- Simulating future supply of and requirements for human resources for health in high-income OECD countries. Human Resources for Health (2016).
- Workflow interruption and nurses’ mental workload in electronic health record tasks: An observational study. BMC Nursing (2023).
- Organization and Management of Health and Healthcare.
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