Is a Healthcare Administration Degree Worth It?

Healthcare isn’t just about doctors and nurses. Managing healthcare requires business leaders as well as healthcare practitioners.

Simply put, healthcare administration is the business of healthcare organizations, said Dr. Urmala Roopnarinesingh, clinical faculty in healthcare administration at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).

Roopnarinesingh has a doctorate in educational leadership. Her academic path has led her to roles as a product manager in the pharmaceutical industry and academic administrator for healthcare clinics and universities.

The business of running hospitals, medical group practices, insurers, charities and other organizations can all fall under the career field known as healthcare administration, according to Roopnarinesingh.

The purpose of business roles within healthcare is to provide quality care safely while ensuring the financial viability of the organizations. “This is a people business, and our primary responsibility is caring for those patients entrusted to healthcare organizations,” she said.

Why Choose Healthcare Administration as a Career? 

The role and responsibility of healthcare administration is two-fold, according to Ryan Haywood, adjunct faculty member and team lead at SNHU. Haywood has worked in healthcare for more than 22 years in multiple areas, including outpatient and inpatient administration, finance and healthcare operations.

According to Haywood, the field of healthcare administration is about managing the current business environment as well as continuously looking forward to the future and being ready to respond to how healthcare is changing. “You will always have new competitors in the market who are exploring new opportunities and avenues of care,” he said. “The environment will forever be in a constant mode of change.”

Jobs for Healthcare Administration 

While healthcare administrators are needed in hospitals and medical practices, there are many options for applying your business skills while supporting patient care.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some examples of employment in this field, in addition to hospital administration, are:

Medical and Health Services Managers

In facilities like hospitals and medical practices, managers are needed to oversee specific departments, like physical therapy or intensive care, according to BLS. In these roles, you might plan, direct or oversee the business aspects of a healthcare facility, including staff management and financial activities.

The median annual pay for these roles was $110,680 as of May 2023, BLS reported.* This field is expected to grow 29% within the next decade, well above the national average for job growth, BLS said.*

Health Information Technologists and Medical Registrars

According to BLS, these roles include responsibilities such as overseeing databases and patient records, including ensuring that patient confidentiality is always protected.

In these roles, BLS said that you may specialize in managing digital systems for recording and retrieving patient data or serve in an analyst role, conducting research and program evaluation. You may also maintain databases, review and analyze patient records or track patient data.

While an associate degree may be sufficient as an entry point into these paths, a bachelor’s or master’s degree in healthcare administration will make you more competitive and can help you advance to leadership roles, according to both Roopnarinesingh and Haywood.

The job outlook for these roles is strong, with a $62,990 median salary as of 2023, according to BLS, and predicted job growth that is much faster than the national average.*

Nursing Home Administrators

All aspects of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other residential care facilities need administrators to manage admissions, facility maintenance and staff management, among other responsibilities, according to BLS.

BLS shows many possible roles in nursing home administration, including staff supervision, scheduling, compliance and budget management.

The median wage at nursing and residential care facilities in 2023, according to BLS, was $97,490.*

What Skills Do You Need to Be Successful? 

While there are many roles available in the healthcare administration field that may require different skills or strengths, there are some key qualities or aptitudes in particular that apply to the field.

First, consider that healthcare administrative roles are leadership roles. To be successful, you must respect the fact that you’re part of and support a team, according to Haywood. You are not a one-person show, he said. “Support your team and depend on them as well.”

Second, Haywood emphasizes the need to be comfortable with change as well as the importance of flexibility in how you approach your work. “You must be able to wear multiple hats,” he said. “In my role, I must be wearing the hat that supports my team with what they need. I must also wear the hat that manages needs in terms of our budget and organization.”

Additional qualities that will help you meet with success in healthcare administration, regardless of specific role:

• A strong sense of compassion. This is the most important quality that a good healthcare administrator should have, according to Roopnarinesingh. “The number one aptitude is caring about and for patients,” she said. You also need strong people skills and empathy.
• An openness to learning. Given the rapid way that healthcare can change, being open to learning new processes and how to meet new operational needs can be critical for success, Haywood said.
• Problem-solving. The ability to solve problems and communicate solutions to your team and other stakeholders is critical as well, said Roopnarinesingh.

What Degree is Best for Healthcare Administration?

While a bachelor’s degree is a great place to start, Roopnarinesingh and Haywood agree that earning a master’s degree will help you build your career. “The bachelor’s degree gives you the opportunity to begin your career and decide the appropriate graduate degree to pursue,” Roopnarinesingh said.

Haywood recommends considering a master’s in healthcare administration (MHA) as part of your education and career plan. From a career standpoint, he said that an MHA is particularly valuable because of the dedicated focus on healthcare as opposed to business in general.

Haywood said that every advantage you can earn from an educational standpoint is critical to helping you build a career in healthcare administration. “If you’re going to go towards the healthcare field as your career ... the MHA is absolutely going to help,” he said.

Is a Bachelor's in Healthcare Administration Worth It?

Both Roopnarinesingh and Haywood say yes.

Healthcare administration is a dynamic industry that’s always in demand, according to Roopnarinesingh.

“You can influence quality care for patients,” she said. This may be a field to consider if you want to help others and are passionate about being a change agent for the delivery of healthcare services. 

For Haywood, healthcare administration is the best of both worlds: It’s a stable field that's constantly changing. People will always need healthcare, so there’s a lot of job stability.

“Healthcare administration is a field that will always be around and is always changing, so you’re always learning how to adapt to the market,” he said.

At the same time, when things like the COVID-19 pandemic happened, healthcare changed dramatically and rapidly. “When we have a pandemic like COVID, it takes us and moves us to an entirely different level of operations that we didn’t even know existed,” he said. “After having been in healthcare for over 22 years, not one day has ever been the same.”

Regardless of the specific healthcare focus you choose, working in healthcare means a career that combines empathy, business concepts and management skills to help others thrive.

*Cited job growth projections may not reflect local and/or short-term economic or job conditions and do not guarantee actual job growth. Actual salaries and/or earning potential may be the result of a combination of factors including, but not limited to: years of experience, industry of employment, geographic location, and worker skill.

A former higher education administrator, Dr. Marie Morganelli is a career educator and writer. She has taught and tutored composition, literature, and writing at all levels from middle school through graduate school. With two graduate degrees in English language and literature, her focus — whether teaching or writing — is in helping to raise the voices of others through the power of storytelling. Connect with her on LinkedIn.