Prospective medical students will be glad to know that the average healthcare administrator salary is high and that the job outlook is excellent. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics cites that the demand for medical and health service managers is growing at 23 percent. Below explains more about health care administrator’s salaries, job duties and education requirements.
What is the Average Salary of a Health Care Administrator?
Research shows that the average health care administrator salary is over $64,000 per year. Senior health care administrators make up to $110,000 per year. Entry-level health care administrators make between $35,000 to $49,000 per year. Therefore, students can start out making $35,000 per year and end up making $110,000 or more by the time they reach retirement. Interestingly enough, the average annual bonus pay is over 10,000 dollars.
What is an Entry-Level Job Description?
An entry-level candidate will be in charge of leading the daily clinic or department operations. They will be responsible for overseeing staff and delivering high quality care and services. They will manage a small budget in accordance with the organization’s standards and profit plan expectations. They will most likely be in charge of ordering supplies and managing inventory. They must schedule staff and work with HR during the interviewing, hiring and training processes.
Related Resource: Top 10 Best Online Master of Health Administration Degree Programs (MHA)
They will assist supervisors with employee performance management, such as helping them to motivate struggling employees, issuing disciplinary warnings and writing formal evaluation reports. They will also collaborate with supervisors to maintain existing workflows and implement new process improvement activities. They must continual training staff to ensure that they follow internal standards and comply with external regulations. Entry-level health care administrators must have excellent leadership, communication and customer service skills.
What is a Senior Level Job Description?
Senior health care administrators are responsible for the coordination of medical, operations and administrative activities. They work with managers and directors to effectively oversee their program. They report to executives and continually provide reports and presentations about strategic goals and objectives. Therefore, they must develop and implements operational plans for each department. Part of their job may involve working with outside vendors and performing contract management duties.
They must continually ensure adequate staffing levels and accurate scheduling processes. They also hold supervisors accountable through implementing and evaluating productivity levels and standards for support staff and health care providers. They assist with patient scheduling in order to monitor patient flow so they can reduce overall time cycles. Sometimes, they will be called to expand their organization’s services through recommending innovative and entrepreneurial programs. They must ensure that all staffed are properly trained and held accountable to state and federal regulations.
What are the Education Requirements?
Entry-level health care administrators should have a bachelor’s degree in health care administration or a related field, such as management or business administration. Senior health care administrators will have a master’s degree in health care management or administration. Both programs will cover organizational development, budgeting practices, strategic planning and health laws. Other courses will cover how to develop and maintain effective health policies and processes. Lastly, there will be classes on health care economics, marketing and quality improvements.
Students who are interested in a lucrative career with great opportunities for career advancement should consider becoming a health care administrator. Keep in mind that as the education level goes up, so does the healthcare administrator salary and benefits.
