What a healthcare administrator really does
You keep a clinic or hospital department running: the staff, the schedule, the budget and the numbers, while doctors, finance and patients all want something different.
FieldHealth
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Considerable preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for healthcare administrators, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Building and fixing staff schedules around call outs, vacations and patient volume
- Reviewing daily and monthly numbers like patient visits, wait times, overtime and supply costs
- Explaining budget variances to finance and planning next year's budget
- Meeting with physician leaders, nurse managers and department heads to solve operational problems
- Hiring, onboarding and coaching supervisors and front line staff
- Handling escalated patient complaints and staff conflicts
- Writing reports and presentations for senior leadership and keeping up with regulation and insurance changes
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- Conflict is close to a daily event, because you sit between clinicians, finance and staff. Conflict Situations: 29% every day, 25% once a week or more (O*NET Work Context)
- Most of the day is spent at a desk on email and calls, not on the floor with patients. E-Mail: 100% every day; Telephone Conversations: 93% every day; Spend Time Sitting: 50% continually or almost continually (O*NET Work Context)
- You are judged by how well other people's work goes, not just your own. Work Outcomes and Results of Other Workers: 39% very high responsibility, 43% high (O*NET Work Context); Task 1, direct and evaluate staff: importance 86, Core
- Money is part of the job even if you came in for the mission. Task 4, conduct fiscal operations including budgets and financial reporting: importance 79, Core (O*NET Tasks)
- Half of managers work beyond a standard week. Duration of Typical Work Week: 50% more than 40 hours (O*NET Work Context)
How people get into it
Usually a bachelor's degree in health administration, business, public health or a clinical field, often followed by a master's (MHA, MBA or MPH) and an administrative fellowship or a step up from a supervisor role. O*NET respondents report a bachelor's degree (46%), master's degree (21%) or associate degree (11%). Nursing home administrators need a state license.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks at Northgate Health Outpatient Center, a fictional company, with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: This trial cannot show the slow, relationship heavy side of the role: earning trust with physicians over months, walking the floor to see problems for yourself, sitting through long committee meetings, preparing for accreditation surveys, and handling real personnel issues like discipline or layoffs. You act as an administrative fellow working under the director of outpatient services.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
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Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 11-9111.00. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.