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Excellent healthcare requires a wide variety of professionals working together to ensure the best care. Your doctor may be the face of healthcare that you see, but there are many people working behind the scenes to ensure that you receive the best care possible. Although they have an important impact on care, here are three healthcare professionals you may not think about.

Administrative Professionals

Hospitals and doctor’s offices rely on administrators to keep their organizations running. Those with an online master of health administration step into roles that allow them to manage and oversee the business operations of a medical practice, from making financial decisions to managing human resources. Doctors and hospitals rely on these professionals to handle the business side of medicine so they can continue to focus on patient care. If you have medical leadership experience, but are looking for a more non-traditional side of the business, you may consider administration.

Biostatisticians

You probably haven’t bumped into a bio statistician at your doctor’s office, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t benefited from their work. These professionals gather and study data and statistics about healthcare, looking for patterns. It’s these unsung healthcare heroes who discover important information like the link between high blood pressure and heart disease or trends that suggest a specific treatment may do more harm than good. Many are also involved with helping to design surveys and evaluations to ensure accurate data collection.

Medical Cleaning Crews

Never mistake a hospital cleaning crew for the low men and women on the totem pole. The cleaning crews in medical facilities work on the front lines of infection control, cleaning everything from toilets to surgical operating rooms. They also properly handle and discard bio hazards as well as paperwork that may contain sensitive patient information. Medical cleaning crew members play a critical role in preventing the spread of infection and disease, but they often go overlooked by patients who are unaware of the important healthcare role they play.

These are just three commonly overlooked but impactful careers in the healthcare industry. These people and many others have a direct effect on patient care, even if they remain behind the scenes. There are, of course, many other such positions in the healthcare field from IT professionals who keep computers up and running to medical illustrators who help write the texts that train doctors and surgeons. If you want to work in healthcare but have no wish to be a doctor, one of the many quieter healthcare industry jobs may be the right fit for you.