As an aspiring professional who wants to enter the field of allied health, one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is which style of role you’d like to pursue: clinical or administrative. For those who have a strong interest in helping others and supporting the healthcare system — but in a non-clinical capacity — healthcare administration offers a variety of roles and specialties to suit your different interests.
But what exactly is healthcare administration, and are healthcare administrators the only role within the field? To help you understand if this position is right for you, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to healthcare administrator careers, including career outlook, responsibilities, and how to get started on your career today.
In This Article:
What Is Healthcare Administration?
Often leading the team behind the scenes, healthcare administrators — sometimes called healthcare executives or health service managers — oversee the complex management of healthcare organizations, ensuring all of its interconnected pieces come together to deliver high-quality patient care in a financially sustainable way. While they may not be experts in any of the unique areas they oversee — finance, human resources, medicine, diagnostics, or nursing, for example — healthcare administrators work with a team of interdisciplinary leaders to drive results. This means that healthcare administration can be ideal for passionate learners who can balance an understanding of multiple industries.
Why Are Healthcare Administrators Important?
Healthcare organizations are complex and continuously changing. For an organization to be successful, its patients must consistently receive high-quality, effective care and be highly satisfied with their care level.
To do this, organizations rely on healthcare administrators to streamline every administrative aspect of the facility. Here are just a few elements of a successful healthcare organization that healthcare administrators might oversee:
- Employees must enjoy what they do, believe that their work is meaningful, and have a strong desire to stay with the organization.
- Policies and procedures must meet stringent safety and quality guidelines, be routinely reviewed and updated, and reflect changing research in the healthcare field.
- The building and grounds must be safe, in good working condition, and regularly inspected, tested, and maintained.
- Staff must hold specific licenses, certifications, and other recognized credentials and receive ongoing training and competency testing to care for patients.
- The finances must be sustainable and support wages, salaries, operating expenses, and capital purchases.
Healthcare Administrator Job Description Overview
Healthcare administrators can work in a variety of roles in a hospital or healthcare facility, from floor supervisors to higher-level administrators or executives. In general, they plan, direct, and coordinate the strategy and activity of the organization.
Responsibilities for healthcare administrators vary greatly depending on their roles and the needs of their organization. In a supervisor role, healthcare administrators may spend much of their time scheduling, hiring, and coaching employees. An executive, on the other hand, will spend more time engaging with the community, driving organizational culture, and evaluating service utilization to drive improvement.
Some of the most common healthcare administrator duties include the following:
- Evaluating, comparing, recommending, selecting, and implementing electronic systems for a variety of functions within healthcare. This includes credentialing, recruitment, personnel management, performance management, quality measurement, patient satisfaction, medical records, IT ticket management, and more.
- Selecting, directing, supervising, and managing the performance of personnel across all disciplines (clerical, clinical, technical, maintenance, finance, etc.).
- Developing, reviewing, approving, revising, and implementing policies and procedures according to best practice.
- Staying up-to-date with changes in the healthcare climate, including emerging research on best practices in healthcare delivery, patient satisfaction, medicine, equipment, quality, staff retention, and more.
- Establishing and administering budgets; reviewing and approving spending; and coordinating, reviewing, and sharing financial reporting.
- Planning for the future by identifying organizational strategy, opportunities, and challenges, as well as by mitigating risk.
- Engaging with local neighborhoods and other stakeholders to solve problems that impact the community as a whole, support public health efforts, and increase awareness and perception of the organization.
Where Do Healthcare Administrators Work?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most medical and health service managers, including healthcare administrators, are employed at state, local, and private hospitals. In this position, a healthcare administrator might manage an entire department or oversee different facets of the hospital’s overall administration.
Outside of this, healthcare administrators can be found in several different settings, including:
Clinical
- Physician practices
- Long-term care facilities
- Outpatient clinics
- Home health agencies
Non-Clinical
- Health insurance companies
- Government agencies
- Consulting firms
- Healthcare associations
- Research organizations
Healthcare Administrator Career Growth
Healthcare administrators can further their professional careers in many ways, from experience-based growth in a particular subset of health administration to pursuing specialty certificates and advanced degrees such as a Master’s in Healthcare Administration or a Master’s in Business Administration.
How to Become a Healthcare Administrator
The path to becoming a healthcare administrator can look different for everyone, and where you begin your journey depends on your current education and goals. Explore the sections below to understand the steps you might take to become a healthcare administrator.
- Evaluate Your Skills & Interests
- Understand the Education Requirements for Healthcare Administrators
- Complete a Healthcare Administration Certificate or Degree Program
- Explore Healthcare Administration Certifications
Evaluate Your Skills & Interests
Though you’ll learn many of the necessary skills for employment as a healthcare administrator during your education, others may be ones you already possess. Understanding the abilities you’ll need to master for your role can help you decide if healthcare administration is the right fit. Being familiar with healthcare administrator skills can also provide a starting point as you seek programs that can help develop your abilities further.
The best healthcare administrators have certain skills in common:
- Public Speaking. Healthcare administrators speak publicly frequently and communicate with employees, patients, physicians, colleagues, and stakeholders daily.
- Decision Making. Healthcare administrators often make the final decision between multiple options, comparing and contrasting each potential choice to determine which opportunity poses the greatest benefit and the least risk.
- Service Orientation. A desire to help others is an essential requirement of a healthcare administrator.
- Managing Financial Resources. Healthcare administrators may be responsible for as much as millions of dollars annually; it’s crucial these funds are allocated appropriately for the benefit of the patients and the communities they serve.
- Social Perceptiveness. As the face of an organization, especially when working in an executive role, healthcare administrators must be able to read social cues given by those around them and understand why people react the way they do.
- Systems Evaluation. Healthcare administrators often evaluate different electronic systems to determine which best meets the organization’s needs and provides the greatest value.
- Negotiation. Leaders in health services often bring others together and assist them in resolving conflicts and reconciling differences.
Understand the Education Requirements for Healthcare Administrators
Working in healthcare management typically requires an associate degree or higher. However, professionals with clinical degrees (nursing, radiology tech, laboratory science, etc.) can often advance into management with a combination of their clinical education and experience. Executive roles will typically require an advanced degree, such as a master's degree or higher.
One of the easiest ways to begin your career is by enrolling in a healthcare administrator degree program tailored to train students for the specific demands of the role. Generally, these programs require a high school diploma, GED, or sometimes an associate’s degree from an accredited institution if you’re entering a higher-level degree program. At The College of Health Care Professions, we offer a Healthcare Administration Bachelor of Science Degree Completion Program as well as similar healthcare administrative program options to suit your goals, including:
Complete a Healthcare Administration Certificate or Degree Program
While you earn your healthcare management degree, your coursework gives you the opportunity to develop the skills you need for future employment. The skills you can expect to practice during the course of your degree program include public speaking, critical thinking, resource coordination, active listening, decision-making, writing, reading comprehension, people management, persuasion, financial management, analysis, instruction, and more. Healthcare administrator and management courses vary depending on your chosen program, such as an associate or bachelor's degree.
A few of the healthcare administration courses you can expect to take during your program include:
- Computer Applications in Healthcare
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills
- Principles of Management and Leadership
- Human Resources Management
- Business Report Writing
- Principles of Accounting
- Healthcare Delivery Systems, Organization, and Administration
- Public Speaking and Presentations
- Business Law and Legal Aspects in Healthcare
- Healthcare Financing
- Risk Management in Healthcare Settings
The coursework within a healthcare administration program is designed to build your understanding of all aspects of healthcare leadership, from finance to human resources and quality assurance, so you can best support teams in each of these areas.
Explore Healthcare Administration Certifications
Whether or not a healthcare administrator will need additional certifications outside of their degree or certificate program will depend on the employer, the individual’s goals, and the role's nuances. For instance, nursing home administrators must maintain official licensure, but the requirements for licensure vary by state. For healthcare administrators aiming to further their careers or explore specific skills may consider certifications such as the following:
Healthcare Administration Programs Online - Get Started at CHCP
At The College of Health Care Professions, we serve the healthcare management education needs of medical coders, receptionists, patient care providers, and more to help them advance their careers and complete their degrees while working and caring for their families.
We offer both an online Health Care Management Associate of Applied Science Degree Program and an online Healthcare Administration Bachelor of Science Degree Program, designed to help prepare you for your pursuit of a role in healthcare administration.
To take the first step toward launching your career in healthcare administration, contact us at CHCP to learn more about online healthcare management degrees today.
