On a day-to-day basis, healthcare administration manages a facility’s operations, including financial planning, staffing and compliance with healthcare regulations. By collaborating closely with department leaders and staff, administrators help ensure that patient care is delivered in a timely and effective manner. Overall, healthcare administration is essential in ensuring that both clinical and non-clinical operations are aligned with the facility’s goals, legal standards and patient needs.

Why is Healthcare Administration Important?

With an aging population and a constantly evolving need for medical care across the nation, maintaining a high level of attention and professionalism in the healthcare industry is crucial. Healthcare administration helps meet these demands by ensuring the effective operation and overall performance of healthcare facilities.

Administrators ensure that healthcare settings, such as hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities, operate effectively. Their work impacts:

• Patient safety and satisfaction: By optimizing operations, administrators contribute to better patient experiences.
• Staff efficiency: Effective management leads to a more organized workforce, reducing burnout and improving job satisfaction.
• Financial stability: Proper budgeting and resource allocation ensure that facilities can continue to provide services without financial strain.
• Regulatory adherence: Staying compliant with healthcare laws protects facilities from legal issues and maintains public trust.

What is a Healthcare Administrator?

Healthcare administrators are behind the scenes, overseeing the operations of a healthcare facility. They ensure that business activities are performed effectively while also creating smooth operational systems that result in quality service for patients, providers and healthcare systems.

What Does a Healthcare Administrator Do?

Healthcare administrators can fill a wide range of roles depending on the size and type of facility they work in. From small community clinics to large metropolitan hospitals, healthcare administrators can potentially be tasked with duties such as:

• Operational oversight: Managing daily operations of medical facilities, ensuring that departments run efficiently
• Financial management: Overseeing budgeting, billing and financial planning to maintain the facility’s fiscal health
• Staff management: Hiring, training and supervising staff members, including scheduling and performance evaluations
• Policy implementation: Developing and enforcing policies to improve patient care and operational efficiency
• Regulatory compliance: Ensuring that the facility adheres to healthcare laws and regulations at the local, state and federal levels
• Technology integration: Managing health information systems, including electronic health records (EHRs), to streamline patient data management

Types of Healthcare Administration Roles

The role of a healthcare administrator is generally determined by the size and type of healthcare facility. Some of the most common roles in the field include:

• Hospital administrator: Hospital administrators oversee the entire operation of a hospital. They manage budgets, lead strategic planning efforts, coordinate with department heads and ensure the hospital complies with healthcare laws and regulations. They play a central role in maintaining smooth operations across large, often complex systems.
• Clinical manager: Clinical managers are responsible for specific departments within a healthcare facility, such as surgery, radiology or emergency services. They supervise clinical staff, manage departmental budgets and ensure that their departments meet both patient care standards and operational goals.
• Nursing home administrator: These professionals manage long-term care or assisted living facilities. Their work involves supervising caregiving staff, ensuring compliance with elder care regulations, overseeing admissions and maintaining a safe, supportive environment for residents.
• Health information manager: Specializing in health information management, these administrators focus on managing and securing patient medical records and data. They ensure compliance with data protection laws such as HIPAA, oversee electronic health records (EHR) systems and help improve data workflows across the healthcare organization.
• Practice manager: Practice managers handle the administrative functions of smaller healthcare settings like private clinics or group practices. They coordinate staffing, manage billing and insurance processes, oversee budgets and implement office policies to improve patient flow and operational efficiency.

Essential Skills for Healthcare Administrators

To excel in the healthcare administration field, professionals should generally possess skills such as:

• Leadership and decision-making: Ability to guide teams and make informed decisions that impact facility operations
• Financial acumen: Understanding of budgeting, financial planning and resource allocation
• Knowledge of healthcare laws and policies: Staying updated on regulations to ensure compliance
• Communication and team management: Effective communication skills to manage diverse teams and interact with stakeholders
• Problem-solving: Aptitude for identifying issues and implementing solutions to improve facility performance

Healthcare Administrator vs. Healthcare Manager

While the terms healthcare administration and healthcare management are often used interchangeably, they refer to different roles within a healthcare facility.

Healthcare administrators focus on the daily operations of medical and health services. They ensure that administrative and clinical functions are run efficiently and in accordance with regulations. Their responsibilities include:

• Managing patient information and billing processes
• Supervising departments or entire healthcare facilities
• Collaborating with medical staff and support teams
• Ensuring adherence to healthcare regulations and laws
• Developing and enforcing policies to enhance efficiency and improve patient care

Healthcare managers, on the other hand, are more involved in strategic leadership and long-term planning of healthcare organizations. In essence, they help guide the big-picture goals of the facility. Their typical responsibilities include:

• Long-term planning and establishing goals
• Budget creation and financial management
• Strategic decision-making for expansion, partnerships and new services
• Organizational development and assessing performance
• Leading organizational change and shaping company culture

How to Become a Healthcare Administrator?

Successful healthcare administrators bring strong educational backgrounds to healthcare operations that include degrees and certifications.

Bachelor’s Degree

A bachelor’s degree is typically the minimum requirement for entry-level positions in healthcare administration. Relevant fields of study include:

• Healthcare administration
• Health services management
• Public health
• Business administration

Advanced Degree

For higher-level positions, an advanced degree can be advantageous as it can open doors to senior roles and increase earning potential. Options include:

• Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA): Focuses on the intricacies of healthcare systems and leadership
• Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a healthcare focus: Combines business principles with healthcare management
• Master of Public Health (MPH): Emphasizes public health policies and community health management

Certifications

Certifications can further validate expertise and enhance your qualifications. Some of the most popular certifications available include:

• Certified Healthcare Executive (CHE)
• Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE)

What Is Healthcare Administration Job Outlook?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for occupations in the healthcare industry is projected to grow at a much faster rate than other occupations from 2023 to 2033, with . This growth is driven by an aging population and an increasing need for healthcare services across the nation.

As of 2024, some of the for professionals in the medical administrative and management sector include:

• Government: $132,620
• Hospitals (state, local, and private): $130,690
• Outpatient care centers: $106,990
• Offices of physicians: $100,780
• Nursing and residential care facilities: $99,250

FAQs

Is healthcare administration a good career?

Yes, with a growing demand for healthcare services, healthcare administration offers job stability, competitive salaries and opportunities for advancement.

What degree do you need to become a healthcare administrator?

A bachelor’s in healthcare administration or a related field is typically required. Advanced degrees like an MHA or MBA can potentially enhance job prospects.

Where do healthcare administrators work?

Healthcare administrators typically work in settings such as hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, government agencies and insurance companies.

How much do healthcare administrators make?

The median annual salary for professionals in the medical administrative and management industry can vary depending on experience and location. As of 2024, the annual median wage is .

Is Healthcare Administration the Right Career for You?

If you’re passionate about improving healthcare systems, supporting care teams and leading meaningful change behind the scenes, healthcare administration may be your perfect fit. As a healthcare administrator, you won’t just manage operations – you’ll help power the heartbeat of healthcare itself.

Whether you’re drawn to the daily operations at hospitals and clinics or looking to become an integral part of a specialized medical team, your skills can make a lasting impact on patient care, staff success, and the future of healthcare delivery.

Take the next step toward becoming a leader in healthcare with the fully online programs at ·¬ÇŃĘÓƵ.

Healthcare in the modern era includes an that requires trained healthcare administrators and public health professionals to record, maintain, track, manage and disseminate it. to accurately interpret health-related findings that ultimately inform clinical practice outcomes.

Knowing that both career fields are on the rise, it’s important to discuss the skills, experience and education needed to get there. Serving at a management or leadership level most often requires or prefers a master’s degree, but how do you choose? Among the most popular programs are Master of Public Health (MPH) degrees and Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) degrees. However, it’s important to know which is going to lead you toward your career goals as a difference-maker in healthcare. This is your handy guide to help you decide which healthcare master’s degree is for you.

Understanding MPH vs. MHA

Both MPH and MHA programs, specifically those offered at ·¬ÇŃĘÓƵ, equip graduates for leadership roles in healthcare, but there are key differences between them like variances in curricula, duration and cost.

What Is an MHA?

An MHA is a graduate-level degree that prepares students for leadership and management roles in healthcare administration. Healthcare administrators are skilled in areas of financial management, health informatics and organizational management. They play a critical role in assuring healthcare organizations operate smoothly. MHA programs emphasize these competencies by focusing on developing skills and knowledge in areas like strategic planning, ethics and healthcare finance to prepare graduates to hold leadership positions in healthcare organizations.

What Is an MPH?

An MPH is a graduate-level degree that aims to prepare graduates for leadership and management roles in public health organizations or programs. Public health focuses on the wellness of populations and communities through collecting, analyzing and distributing data and healthcare education resources. Though the research public health professionals conduct may serve clinical practices, public health is not to be confused with clinical medicine. MPH programs offer courses designed to teach graduates how to run data analyses on health information, draft health policy changes or develop health promotion initiatives for communities.

Career Opportunities With an MHA vs. an MPH

An MPH degree is designed for those aspiring to lead or manage in public health roles such as disease prevention, health policy formation, public health research and community health project planning and implementation. Graduates of MPH programs are equipped to understand diseases, illnesses and overall wellness to promote population and community health.

An MHA degree equips those interested in taking on leadership positions in a variety of healthcare organizations. Graduates of MHA programs are prepared to manage and lead healthcare organizations through the application of business, leadership and project management skills. Here’s a quick comparison of where each degree can lead.

The two programs may seem similar, but they’re actually quite different because they prepare you for different lines of work. Healthcare administration and public health sometimes have the opportunity to intertwine, but they operate independently in most circumstances. Let’s dive into the details of each.

MHA vs. MPH: Which Should You Choose?

Your choice in programs depends on your interests and long-term career goals because each leads you to a different path. Earning an MPH is for those whose career goals stem from an interest in policymaking, public health research and community health initiatives. Earning an MHA, on the other hand, is for those who have career goals of leadership positions in healthcare organizations like hospitals or other healthcare facilities.

FAQs

What is the difference between an MHA and MPH?

An MHA prepares students with the skills needed to lead and manage healthcare organizations from a business and operational perspective. An MPH prepares students for work that improves the health of defined populations and communities.

What kind of jobs can you get with an MPH?

An MPH degree can lead to public health positions such as an epidemiologist, biostatistician, health educator, public health advisor or environmental health specialist.

Which degree is better for healthcare management: MHA or MPH?

An MHA is typically better for healthcare management because it offers the tools and competencies needed for leadership and administration roles at healthcare organizations.

Is an MPH or MHA more suitable for working in public health?

An MPH is more suitable for working in public health because its curriculum offers training in how to conduct epidemiological studies, implement health promotion plans and run biostatistical analyses on large sets of health data to find trends in health and disease.

Advance your healthcare career with the flexible, affordable and high-quality MPH or MHA programs at ·¬ÇŃĘÓƵ.

¹This is an estimated time to completion. Actual completion time may vary depending on the number of transfer credits applied, availability of courses, a satisfactory pace, successful course completion and meeting program milestones as required.

These are just a few of the branches within the arena of public health careers, which includes but is not limited to epidemiology, community health, global health, public policy, maternal and child health, health equity, environmental health and biostatistics. A public health professional can stick to one specialty for years or dabble in many different areas as they progress forward in their career. This opens up boundless opportunities and room for an evolution of interests that all contribute to public health initiatives.

How I Started in Public Health

My public health career began in epidemiology at the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic. I performed contact tracing and notifying, interviewing and tracking individuals who had been exposed to an infectious agent. This opened my eyes to the critical component of data management and information privacy within the U.S. public health system.

I learned the challenges and rewards of contact tracing by conducting over a thousand interviews. I would say that 90% of the people I spoke with were more than willing to provide necessary details about their COVID-19-related predicament. Contrary to my early assumption that I would have difficulty collecting data from strangers during a time of health crisis, I found that most people were open to participate in contact tracing, which is designed to protect them and the people around them. This held true in more than one region of the U.S. where I worked.

Fast forward to recently, I served as a public health specialist where I maintained similar duties to that of a communicable disease epidemiologist. I focused on data analysis, data visualization and epidemiological reports for many different infectious diseases. It was great to see my previous experience apply to my new one. My time was spent using data software to test for significant correlations between patient attributes or exposures along with morbidity and mortality rates. This position reiterated the fact that a scientist can only perform analyses to the quality level of the data that is available.

Now, I’m able to apply my experience to pay it forward and give to the future of public health professionals by teaching nutrition science and wellness at the college level.

Why Epidemiology?

Epidemiology is the analysis and study of patterns, determinants and distribution of disease throughout a population. Methods for disease prevention and risk factors of acquiring an infection are identified by epidemiologists.

The COVID-19 impact on the U.S. led to members of different healthcare sectors, like public health and clinical medicine, learning how to trace and combat the epidemiology of an infectious disease. A communicable disease epidemiology department focuses on slowing the spread of infection through research and development initiatives. This can occur with contact tracing, case investigations, immunizations, data analyses, public service announcements, offering online and in-person educational resources and initiating community outreach programs.

How Epidemiology Outcomes Are Accomplished

Community health outcomes are improved through the power of epidemiology with intentional, long-term healthcare data reporting. Population-level health reports depend on collecting and managing a full story for each patient, which requires excellent interviews and advanced information technology. The stress of public health emergencies is lessened when community members are kept up to date on the prevalence of current health issues through strong dissemination plans and public health education processes. State and local departments of health can offer communication pertaining to medical research and updates on digital health systems, health education, facilities and services.

Public health work can be compartmentalized by local governments, nonprofits and private companies. There are certainly higher levels like state and national governments, but let’s focus on what is typical in the more abundant local governments, which is where most public health professionals work early on in their public health career. (For example, there is one New York State Department of Health, but there are 58 local health departments in New York.)

Local health departments are run within local governments and offer services like responding to public health emergencies, assessing community health needs, disseminating information and providing immunizations. Nonprofit organizations can partner with local health departments to offer services that can improve research, provide free clinics to underserved populations and raise awareness about health issues to advocate for policy changes.

Additionally, private companies offer healthcare services that are located within hospitals and other facilities where medical care is provided. They are tasked with developing pharmaceuticals and other products related to health. There is great collaboration among private companies and the public and nonprofit sectors regarding research and health initiatives.

Public Health Contractual Work

One thing I’ve learned about working in public health is that many positions are temporary and grant funded, much like freelance work. This is important because although some employers might allude to renewing your contract at the end of the assignment, it’s unfortunately not guaranteed. Grant-funded fellowships are plentiful in public health, and it can be challenging to secure long-term work if you are only applying to these positions. As with any job, you want to ensure that your desired contract offers benefits like health insurance and a retirement plan. Read the terms of employment carefully before signing on to fulfill a grant-funded contract to ensure that this is the right position for your current circumstance. In other words, do not commit to paying a new mortgage after signing a one-year grant-funded contract with an employer who is “really hoping to keep you” but lacks legitimate documentation and resources.

The wait between public health work contracts could vary for reasons beyond your control. COVID-19 produced a boost in available public health jobs because the U.S. was facing a widespread outbreak, but that boost has since receded. One of the challenges in public health is that we’re never sure exactly when something as demanding as a pandemic will occur. There’s an unpredictable factor in public health, which is incredibly exciting to some, but could cause anxiety for others. Temporary contracts can be great for people who are just starting out in the field, receive health insurance elsewhere and can afford to take breaks between employment.

How Different Public Health Teams Collaborate

It’s not uncommon to find that the different specialties of public health work interdependently, as all are valuable and contribute to form the public health system in the U.S. Whether you work in epidemiology or another branch of public health, you’ll always cross paths with other specialties. I’ll share an example.

Measles is a vaccine-preventable, highly contagious and sometimes fatal airborne disease that affects people of all ages. The first measles vaccine is typically administered in childhood between 12 months and 12 years of age. A measles outbreak would be primarily covered by an epidemiology department but there are several others that could have the opportunity to contribute.

Maternal and child health teams might use educational resources provided by the epidemiology office to ensure that mothers have the information they need to protect themselves and their children. Global health offices can collaborate with biostatistics teams to better understand the global prevalence of measles and how to prepare for changes in a domestic outbreak. Health equity and community health offices can address local determinants of health that might be affecting access to immunizations and medical care. And finally, public policy and environmental health offices can create new legislation to protect the population. Public health is a network of specialized professionals who work within their departments until an outbreak strikes. Then, it’s all hands on deck to reach the goal of community health and wellness.

As you can see, working in public health services is broad and detailed at the same time. Even better, you can contribute to healthcare even if you don’t want to work on the clinical side. If this is a field you’re interested in, go for it! You’ll enjoy a rewarding career that positively impacts communities both locally and nationally.

Become the public health professional you aspire to be with the Master of Public Health program at ·¬ÇŃĘÓƵ.