If you’re passionate about the healthcare field, but don’t feel drawn to the idea of working as a provider, healthcare administration might be the perfect fit for you. But what does a healthcare administrator do?
Healthcare administrators manage and maintain the behind-the-scenes details that keep systems and organizations running smoothly. This allows providers to maintain the highest standard of treatment in a variety of different settings.
Wondering if a career in healthcare administration could be right for you? Keep reading to discover more about what your day-to-day responsibilities might entail.
What Does a Healthcare Administrator Do on a Daily Basis?
Healthcare administrators are the strategic minds behind the growth and development of healthcare facilities. They are the organizational leaders facilitating collaboration, the data analysts crunching the numbers, and the directors of strategy optimizing for efficiency.
While these roles may not be patient-facing, they are just as crucial to quality care. Check out our career guide to learn more about how to become a healthcare administrator.
Daily Priorities of a Healthcare Administrator
With a wide variety of healthcare administration roles to choose from, responsibilities and skills can vary. However, a few core priorities remain true across the field. Here are some of the primary duties a healthcare administrator carries each day.
Planning and Directing
Think of a healthcare administrator as the captain of a ship, leading and navigating a fast-paced organization. Not only are these professionals in charge of crafting plans and strategies to move their team forward — they’re responsible for executing them.
Developing long-term plans and policies for improvement and growth is a daily priority. This is especially true for administrators in senior leadership and management roles, which typically require a Master of Health Administration (MHA).
Financial Oversight
From everyday financial reporting to structuring and maintaining budgets, healthcare administrators manage the billions of dollars that come through the healthcare system each year.
If you enjoy working with finances, WCU’s Bachelor of Science in Health Administration (BSHA) program offers a finance track to help prepare students interested in becoming a financial analyst, healthcare finance manager, reimbursement specialist, or budget analyst.
Human Resources and Compliance
Healthcare administrators don’t just manage tasks, they manage people. From handling personnel issues and onboarding to ensuring legal compliance, healthcare administrators tackle the relational tasks required to keep a healthcare organization running smoothly.
Quality Control
Nowhere is quality control more crucial than within the healthcare system, where lives are at stake every day. Healthcare administrators are in charge of standardizing processes, keeping medical equipment up to date, and minimizing safety risks. They take proactive measures to ensure the highest quality standards and facilitate positive patient outcomes.
Communication and Collaboration
An organization is only as strong as the team behind it, and it’s the role of healthcare administrators to keep communication flowing smoothly at all times.
The medical field has a lot of moving parts: patients, practitioners, medical suppliers, insurance providers, and other administrators. Miscommunications cost time and money, and often compromise the quality of patient care. It’s the job of healthcare administrators to keep their teams organized, efficient, and collaborative, with all parties on the same page.
Professional Development
Healthcare is constantly evolving, requiring those working in the field to grow along with it. As a healthcare administrator, discovering opportunities for professional development is key for maintaining the highest standards of both patient care and operational success.
Healthcare administrators continually seek out learning experiences and advanced training to allow their team and organization to improve and thrive.
Data Analysis
A healthcare administrator is surrounded by data, including operational costs, patient statistics, and staffing levels. They must be able to not only make sense of the data but also know what to do about it.
Healthcare administration data analysis requires high-level strategic thinking. In a data-driven landscape, analysis and execution is crucial to staying on top.
Where Can I Work as a Healthcare Administrator?
Healthcare is a wide field, and administrators find themselves with no shortage of options to choose from when determining where to work.
Obvious choices include a hospital or local medical practice, but there are a variety of unique career opportunities available, including:
- Government or military organizations
- Health department offices
- Insurance providers
- Long-term care facilities
- Mental health practices
- Nursing homes
- Outpatient care centers
- University health centers
The position you will be qualified for at any of these workplaces depends on your credentials. A BSHA degree will allow you to pursue entry-level roles, such as a health service manager. A MHA degree, on the other hand, opens up greater career options in leadership. From working as a clinical director to taking the lead as a pharmaceutical executive, the possibilities are endless.
Pursue Your Healthcare Administration Education at West Coast University
For those excited to enhance the healthcare industry through hands-on, strategic work, earning your degree in healthcare administration can pave a fulfilling path forward.
WCU’s online BSHA program is designed to provide the foundational skills needed to enter the field with confidence — and offers an Accelerated pace for students ready to hit the ground running as well as a Working Professional pace for those requiring more flexibility. BSHA students have the opportunity to specialize in strategic management or finance through WCU’s focused tracks.
From there, students looking to advance further into leadership positions such as managerial or executive roles can enroll in WCU’s online MHA program. Choose to specialize in areas such as:
Ready to get started? Request more information today to learn how you can work towards a rewarding future in healthcare administration.
WCU provides career guidance and assistance but cannot guarantee employment. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or position of the school or of any instructor or student.
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