Health administration is a broad field of study with many fulfilling career paths to pursue. A degree in health administration prepares students to help manage the daily operations in a medical facility and perform other administrative tasks. If you’re interested in working in the health administration field, you might want to know what you can do with your degree. In this article, we discuss what a health administration degree is and some advantages of earning a degree in this health care field.
What is a health administration degree?
A health administration degree prepares students for leadership roles within healthcare organizations. You might learn how to keep an organization running smoothly by implementing changes to improve patient care and the efficiency of daily operations. While pursuing your health administration degree, you might choose to specialize in areas like education, operations, and health policy. Each concentration can prepare you for a career path in health administration. A graduate with a degree in health administration is usually qualified to work in settings such as:
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Hospitals
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Clinics
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Doctor’s offices
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Nursing homes
Types of Health Administration Degree Careers
Those with a healthcare administration degree can pursue a variety of career paths. Some professionals choose to work with patients directly, while others prefer to focus on numbers and data. Here are some common career paths for graduates with health administration degrees:
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Nursing home administrator: These professionals manage staff and residents in a nursing home, perform financial and administrative duties, and provide oversight regarding local, state, and federal regulations. Nursing home administrators usually have master’s degrees.
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Clinical supervisor: Clinical supervisors manage the daily operations of medical clinics by maintaining schedules for employees, delegating tasks, handling clinical records and patient reports, managing inventory, and enforcing quality standards. This career path may require you to have a bachelor’s degree.
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Records and information technician: As a medical record and health information technician, you might oversee office records, maintain patient files, keep computer systems updated, and create organizational processes for record-keeping. These technicians typically have associate degrees.
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Medical billing manager: Medical billing managers handle the paperwork for healthcare organizations. Their responsibilities might include negotiating insurance contracts, hiring and training new employees in the billing department, and tracking insurance and patient payments. These professionals often have a bachelor’s degree in health administration.
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Healthcare consultants: These professionals work with healthcare facilities to conduct research, identify problems and create solutions. They may help with insurance compliance, and patient confidentiality and address malpractice. Many healthcare consultants hold a master’s degree in health administration.
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Medical office manager: A medical office manager is in charge of administrative duties for health care centers. They review expenses and accounts, handle scheduling concerns, and organize paperwork and files. These professionals usually have a bachelor’s degree and some earn a master’s in health administration.
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Practice administrator: Practice administrators oversee the staff at medical facilities, including recruitment, contract negotiation, and budget for hiring and training of employees. These professionals may manage areas of finance, reports and contracts, staffing and supplies, and office facilities. They often have both undergraduate and graduate degrees.
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Human resources manager: As a human resources manager at a medical facility, you may select candidates to fill a position and advise management about employee pay and benefits. These managers often address conflicts between staff and help identify solutions. A bachelor’s degree in health administration can prepare graduates for this role.
Advantages of getting a health administration degree
Earning a degree in health administration can prepare you to handle a diverse range of responsibilities and make meaningful contributions to your workplace and community. If you have a passion for the well-being of others, this degree can allow you to make a difference in the lives of patients and caregivers. There are many departments within a health care center where you can make a positive impact, and health administration programs can help you learn skills in topics like public health knowledge and leadership.
Types of Health Administration Degrees
Your choice of health administration degree might depend on your career goals, available time, budget, and academic interests. Pursuing an undergraduate degree in healthcare administration can qualify you for entry-level positions, while a graduate degree can help you advance your career into managerial and executive roles. Here’s some information about each type of health administration degree you can earn:
Associate
An associate degree in health administration typically takes two years to complete provides an introduction to the field and can prepare students for entry-level positions in medical coding, billing, or transcription. Coursework might include health care delivery systems, introduction to health care information, health care terminology, and health care administration and management. Graduates with an associate degree often transfer to a four-year program to continue their education.
Bachelor’s
Students in a bachelor’s degree program in health administration often complete their degree in four years and can qualify for management roles in the medical field. This degree explores administration, human resources, research, and the law in relation to health administration. Coursework can include managing human resources, health care quality management and assessment, systems in long-term care, and statistics and research in health care.
Master’s
This graduate program usually takes two years to complete and can prepare graduates for leadership roles in the medical field such as health care administrator, medical services manager, and health care executive. Students might explore classes in strategic planning, finance, global health and diversity, informatics, and healthcare law and policy.
Doctorate
A doctorate may take anywhere from three to seven years to complete and can help students who want to pursue research or teaching roles in health administration. These programs explore advanced concepts in health administration and help graduates gain skills in research, analytics, and teaching. Students can take classes like advanced mixed-methods reasoning and analysis and build a multidisciplinary approach to health.
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