What Is a Hospital Administrator?
In 2023, American hospitals admitted almost 34 million patients. Some patients needed quick and immediate treatment. Others needed follow-up visits, long-term care, mental health counseling, surgery, and help from medical specialists of every stripe.
However, for talented frontline professionals to give each patient the care they deserve, they must be supported by an equally talented team of hospital administrators.
Administrative decisions have an impact on everything from patient health outcomes to staff turnover rates. To ensure a favorable impact, administrators may need an advanced education at the intersection of business and healthcare.
What Does a Hospital Administrator Do?
Hospital administrators oversee and manage different aspects of their organizations’ day-to-day operations. Similar to administrators in other industries, they have duties such as hiring and budget management.
Because hospitals are in charge of their patients’ well-being, being a hospital administrator also comes with unique duties, including the following:
- Tracking and analyzing patient outcome data
- Using patient outcome data to find areas of improvement
- Ensuring that hospitals stay compliant with all safety, insurance, and staff training regulations as well as privacy laws
- Researching what services their communities need (nutrition services, neonatal care, etc.) and finding ways to add them to their hospitals’ offerings
- Coordinating between different departments to ensure that patients receive a full continuum of care
- Soliciting funds from private donors, government grants, and other sources
However, administrators don’t typically take on all of these duties at once. They usually oversee a specific area, such as finance, records management, regulatory compliance, or patient wellness.
How to Become a Hospital Administrator: Steps and Different Roles
Hospital administrators aren’t bound by the same licensing regulations as nurses and doctors, but becoming one still requires training, experience, and education. While plenty of job opportunities are available to professionals with bachelor’s degrees, high-level hospital administration jobs typically require a master’s degree.
Step 1: Earn a Bachelor’s Degree
Because many hospital administration jobs require a master’s degree, the first step in obtaining one is earning a bachelor’s degree. Fortunately, many types of degrees can help students build a strong foundation in healthcare leadership.
Students who later pursue master’s degrees for hospital administration jobs often earn undergraduate degrees in:
- Business
- Communications
- Organizational leadership
- Human resource management
- Health information management and informatics
- Nursing
- Healthcare management
Learning about the specifics of healthcare administration at the undergraduate level can be beneficial. However, a healthcare-related bachelor’s degree isn’t typically required to enroll in a master’s program later.
Step 2: Look for Entry-Level Administration Positions
Some students may prefer to start a master’s program as soon as they earn a bachelor’s program, but others prefer to gain hands-on experience first. This can be a great opportunity to explore different hospital administration specialties and decide whether it’s the right career path.
Entry-level hospital administration jobs open to applicants with bachelor’s degrees include the following:
- Assistant administrator or administrative assistant
- Health services manager
- Human resources manager
- Health information manager
- Facilities manager
While important, these roles are usually limited in scope. For example, health information managers are often in charge of maintaining patient databases. However, higher-level administrators are normally responsible for deciding how that information is used on an organizational level.
Step 3: Earn a Master’s Degree
Taking on high-level hospital administration roles typically requires industry knowledge and a defined skill set. To acquire both of these attributes, students and working professionals alike pursue Master of Health Administration (MHA) degrees.
MHA programs typically offer classes in:
- Research
- Health informatics and technology
- Care quality management
- Local, state, and federal healthcare laws, including financial law
- Organizational behavior
- Managerial epidemiology (using clinical data to inform managerial decisions)
In addition to teaching about how healthcare organizations operate, these types of classes help future healthcare leaders make sound business decisions based on ethical, evidence-based principles.
Step 3a (Optional): Consider Professional Certifications
Throughout their careers, hospital administrators of all kinds can pursue professional certifications to broaden their career potential. While not required, professional certifications can help administrators stand out in competitive hiring and promotions.
Professional certifications can be earned through various professional healthcare administration organizations. To be eligible, applicants typically need to be current healthcare administrators, have degrees, and pass a final exam. Administrators can be certified in areas such as healthcare information technology (IT) management, financial risk analysis, and care quality evaluation.
Step 4: Pursue High-Level Administration Roles
Equipped with an advanced understanding of healthcare administration, MHA program graduates can take on any number of hospital leadership roles. This is especially true for graduates who already have some hospital administration experience and are seeking promotions or opportunities with new employers.
With an MHA, hospital administration professionals can become:
- Department Directors: Overseeing the operations of specific departments, such as emergency rooms (ERs) or oncology departments
- Patient Care Services Directors: Ensuring that patients receive a high level of care and receive the support they need before, during, and after treatment
- Chief Healthcare Operations Officers: Facilitating collaboration between all departments and overseeing daily operations
- Chief Financial Officers: Planning budgets, managing finances, and reporting to stakeholders
- CEOs: Creating policies, setting long-term goals, and overseeing the business side of a hospital as the highest level of hospital administrator
While these are some common administrative positions available at hospitals, many other positions are open to MHA graduates as well, including marketing director and chief information officer (CIO).
Hospital Administrator Job Outlook
Employment in all sectors of the economy is expected to grow by an average of 4% between 2023 and 2033, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, in the same period, employment of medical and health service managers, including hospital administrators, is expected to grow by 29%. This is equivalent to an average of 61,400 new job openings every year.
Part of the reason for this astronomical growth is the increasing average age of the American population. By 2034, the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that people over the age of 65 will outnumber children by about half a million. The bureau predicts that meeting this group’s complex needs will take a considerable amount of coordination on the part of all types of healthcare administrators.
Become a Hospital Administrator Who Staff and Patients Alike Can Depend On
For hospital administrators in the early stages of their careers, preparing for the next step can be intimidating. However, through Claremont Lincoln University’s online Master of Arts in Healthcare Administration (MHA) program, you can learn practical, career-focused skills on your own schedule.
Through fully online classes with an asynchronous format, students take on an interdisciplinary curriculum that covers managerial epidemiology, healthcare finance, and change management. Also, with the chance to interact with their peers and get guidance from experienced instructors, students get the support they need to become informed, ethical hospital leaders.
To find out more about the 13-month full-time option, the 26-month part-time option, and how you can prepare for a career in healthcare leadership, contact a member of our admissions team today.
Sources
American Hospital Association, Fast Facts on U.S. Hospitals, 2024
Cureus, “Improving Patient Outcomes Through Effective Hospital Administration: A Comprehensive Review”
Indeed, “What Does a Hospital Administrator Do? (Duties and Salary)”
Inspira Advantage, “How to Become a Hospital Administrator”
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Medical and Health Services Managers
U.S. Census Bureau, The Graying of America: More Older Adults Than Kids by 2035
Claremont Lincoln University is a non-profit university offering affordable online degrees, graduate certificates, and professional development programs. Through a socially conscious education framework, CLU’s mission is to create a new leadership ecosystem through its proprietary Claremont Core®, a distinctive model that encompasses the knowledge needed to become an effective leader of positive change in the workplace or community. CLU is regionally accredited by the highly regarded WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), which ensures institutions meet strict standards and fulfill their missions to serve their students and the public good. Degree programs at CLU focus on healthcare administration, human resources, organizational leadership, management, professional studies, public administration, social impact, and sustainability leadership.
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