Entry Level to Executive: Careers in Health Administration
Health Administrators plan, coordinate, manage and evaluate the business of healthcare organizations. Thus, there is a need for staff on all levels, from support to executive.
Entry level positions such as medical secretary, medical records technician and medical transcriptionist usually require at least an associate’s degree. Typical responsibilities may include medical billing, medical transcription, medical coding, insurance coordination and scheduling.
With more experience and education, employees can work their way up to a clinic administrator, a research administrator, a long-term care administrator. Eventually, a manager may choose to specialize in a certain function such as patient care, procurement, human resources, public relations, marketing, or information technology and take on the responsibility for an entire division. For example, clinic managers are usually medical specialists in their areas (directors of physical therapy units are usually physical therapists.) Others may choose to be generalist, take the large-picture view and work their way up to hospital administrator positions. Managers are responsible for health care delivery, regulatory compliance, and efficiency improvements of their organizations.
Because health care options are changing, so are the work environments for health care administrators. They can work in hospitals (large, small, private, public, teaching), clinics, medical groups, private doctors’ offices, nursing homes, home health agencies, government run ambulatories, insurance carriers and outpatient care facilities.
Work at one of the top hospitals:
- Yale-New Haven Hospital (CT)
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital (MA)
- St. John’s Hospital and Medical Center (MI)
- Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (NJ)
Or work for a health care administration company such as American Shared Hospital Services, Careadvantage, Carescience, Health Management Systems, Healthaxis, Metropolitan Health Networks.
Other places to look for employment: U.S. Armed forces, local physicians and medical groups.
No matter where you are in the country, health care companies are looking for you. To find out more about a professional career in health administration, click here.
