Dr. Erwin Loh

Name: Dr. Erwin Loh

Career stage: Consultant

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Position:

Medical Specialty: Medical Administration

Why did you decide to become a medical administrator?

I graduated from the University of Melbourne Medical School in 1996. Like a lot of other doctors who have gone down the road of medical administration specialisation, I initially started out training in another medical specialty, in my case, paediatrics and psychiatry, with the aim of becoming a child psychiatrist. After passing the initial first-year examination as a psychiatry registrar, I decided to commence studying for a law degree, with the idea that I would eventually dabble in forensic psychiatry. However, I was offered a job in a law firm specialising in public liability, and ended up as a full-time lawyer for two years defending health insurers and doctors working in health and insurance law. During that time, I completed an MBA. I have to admit, law is a very enjoyable profession, but I missed the collegiate and exciting atmosphere of a hospital. I started thinking about medical administration at that point because it is the one medical specialty that allows me to make use of my academic training in medicine, law and management. As it happened, my current position came up, and I wound up in the RACMA training program, and in the meantime, commencing and completing a Master of Health Services Management.

What do you like about medical administration?

Medical Administration is a very challenging medical specialty and it is unlike any other. First of all, your “patient” is really the hospital or health service itself, and the “diseases” that we have to diagnose through the recognition of signs and symptoms, and treat using our clinical and management skills, are really all the problems and issues that can arise out of running complex health systems.

Whats the best thing about your job?

The best aspect of my job is the fact that no day is ever the same, and I am never bored, because I always have to deal with new and interesting issues. I am always learning more about my work, and as a result, more about myself, and how adaptable and flexible I must be in order to meet the challenges that come up.

What are the hours like?

The hours in medical administration, in general, may be better than most other medical specialties. However, depending on how senior you get, you may end up being “on-call” to deal with crises 24/7. This can be the case if medical administrators end up as CEOs of hospitals and as such, medical administrators have to be very careful in how they manage their work/life balance to ensure that they do set aside time for themselves and their families – this is an issue that affects all professionals and specialties. For example, I ensure that I maintain time to spend with my family, and to engage in outside interests such as music, reading and church activities.

What attributes do you need to be a good medical administrator?

To be a good medical administrator, a person needs to have copious amounts of patience, be able to tolerate and manage conflict well, be able to be able to work within a bureaucracy and navigate a complex and sometimes difficult medico-political landscape. Not all doctors want this – after all, most of them have gone into medicine specifically to avoid office work. However, medical administration is not just about the “paperwork” and sitting in an office – it is also very much a patient-focussed specialty and it is all about saving lives – maybe not directly face-to-face, but definitely through the proper and skilled management of health systems to ensure patient safety and quality of healthcare, and to ensure that population health needs are met and that there is maximum health benefit for the limited amount of resources that are available. A doctor may be able to impact many individual lives, but a doctor specialised in medical administration has the potential to impact whole populations.

What advice do you have for students interested in your specialty?

If you, as a medical student or junior medical staff member, have an interest in training in medical administration as a specialty, please check out the RACMA website (www.racma.edu.au) and feel free to contact me by getting my contact details from the University of Melbourne.

Outside of my actual work, I’m involved with the Australian Chinese Medical Association, the Law Institute of Victoria, and I’m an elder of my local church, where I am quite active. I also enjoy reading, playing music (bass, guitar or piano), and developing websites for fun through a company that I am director of. It is absolutely essential that a busy medical administrator, and in fact, any doctor, have extra-curricular non-medically-related activities that they enjoy doing. Social time with family and friends must be protected at all costs, as the danger of burning out is ever-present.

»Visit the Medical Administration specialty page