Individuals seeking a career in management and administrative roles in a hospital or other healthcare facilities may choose a healthcare administration degree to best prepare for those types of leadership roles. Earning a master's degree in health administration can help you better qualify for the leadership jobs you really want.

Students with a stronger interest in public and community health, health and wellness, health policy or health education may prefer to pursue a bachelor’s degree in health sciences.

Step 1 is earning the education you need to qualify for jobs in healthcare management and begin your career. A bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration will help you build the business skills necessary to succeed as a healthcare manager.

You can take the steps to become a healthcare manager with the support of Herzing University, your lifelong learning partner.

The benefits of working in health administration include:

• You can work in many different settings, including hospitals, healthcare clinic, long-term care facility, doctor’s offices, insurance companies and government agencies.
• Career mobility is high, as your versatile skillset is applicable in many different environments and gives you more choice in pursuing your career path.
• The field is growing, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating a 28% increase in employment for medical and health services managers from 2022-2032.*
• You can help people get better, but you don’t necessarily need to be directly involved in patient care and treatment.

Healthcare administrative work settings include hospitals, physician offices, nursing and residential care facilities, outpatient care centers, insurance companies and government agencies. Administrators typically work alongside medical personal in an office environment.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), healthcare administrators and managers earn an average annual salary of $127,980 per year ($61.53 per hour).*

Learn more about how much health administrators and managers can make and their average salary by state.

Yes! Earning a bachelor’s degree can help you either build from your current experience as a healthcare professional or start a new career a fast-growing field. 

Herzing is here to help you take the first step when you’re ready.

There is a lot of overlap in terminology between roles in healthcare management vs. healthcare administration. However, they are unique career paths requiring distinct sets of skills:

• Healthcare management. Healthcare managers deal in the overall operation of an organization. Their primary role is in leadership and the business side of healthcare.  Healthcare managers interact with stakeholders and other board members for organizational direction and planning, usually involves managing more than one department—or an entire clinic.
• Healthcare administration. Healthcare administrators are more concerned with day-to-day operations. An administrator’s focus is on daily staff management and administrative procedures within a department. Healthcare administrators usually report to healthcare managers, and work within individual departments as supervisors or manager support. They may be found in smaller, rural areas as office managers or other similar job titles depending on area, experience and availability.

Smaller healthcare institutions may merge the roles into single positions and use each term interchangeably, but bigger facilities will often specialize into unique roles and differentiate them more clearly in terms of management or administration.

The Herzing University bachelor’s degree program in healthcare administration takes 32 months on average to complete. Depending on your prior transfer credit, you may be able to complete the program a little faster!