HealthCare Administration

What it’s about:

The health care administration major prepares you to manage the business activities of a wide variety of organizations that make up the health care delivery system, such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, insurance companies, and public health agencies.

What the study of this major is like:

If you want to work in health care delivery but do not want to become a clinician, health care administration is the perfect major. You will learn how to make health care available to individuals and how to manage organizations such as nursing homes, clinics, welfare departments, and rehabilitation centers, and hospitals. The program teaches you to manage finances, deal with personnel, understand and comply with the laws that affect health care delivery, and oversee other aspects of administration.

Health care administration is a “people business.” As a health care administrator, you’ll spend most of your time dealing with physicians, nurses, patients and their families, payers, regulators, government agencies, and media representatives. Although majors must be organized and willing to work hard, the most important quality health care administrators need is good interpersonal skills. To be successful, you should feel comfortable working with diverse group of people; communicate well (writing, speaking, and listening); be able to assume a leadership role when necessary; accept criticism without taking it personally; juggle multiple demands; take into account information from a variety of sources when making decisions; and be ready tom improve your organization.

Majors take courses in three broad areas-liberal arts, general management, and health services management. In liberal arts courses, you study communications (especially public speaking), mathematics (especially statistics), critical thinking, and social context (including philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science, and economics). For general management, you examine theories of management, the functional areas of management (such as accounting, computer applications, human resource management, marketing, and strategic management courses), and leadership skills. Health services management courses cover health and disease, health services organization and delivery, financial management, law and government regulation, and health policy.

Health services management courses begin in your third year. Your classes will primarily be lecture/discussion. Many courses use the case method: groups of students examine a question or a problem and come up with a number of solutions. Most programs require a supervised, field-based internship (in the summer or for a semester). Additional practicum experience in highly recommended. Experience in either paid or volunteer positions can make all the difference when you begin your job search.

There are two challenges that most majors face. The first is time management-courses (particularly at the upper level) are intense and require numerous papers and extensive reading. The second challenge is public speaking-an essential skill for health care professionals. In upper-level courses, you often work to overcome both challenges by participating in study groups.

Programs may have different emphases, depending on where they are housed. For example, programs in business schools stress finance and similar subjects, whereas programs in schools of public health or health sciences stress subjects like community response to infectious diseases. As a major, you should seek out courses that balance you studies. If your program has a business focus, be sure to enroll in courses in public health; similarly, if the program is in a health sciences/public health school, you should think about minoring in business.

Career options and trends:

Health plan administrator; health policy analyst; hospital or health system management*; nurse management; nursing home administrator*; physician group practice administrator*; public health administrator*; pharmaceutical sales representative.

State licensure is usually required to run a skilled-care nursing home. Administrators of public health departments or agencies typically have a clinical background either in nursing, social work, or equivalent field of practice.

As the healthcare industry expands and changes, more managers will be needed to ensure that business operations continue to run smoothly. The most significant trend for likely employment is in the areas of long-term care and physician group-practice management. The increasing number of acute care hospitals is also opening up employment opportunities. But keep in mind that to move up from an entry-level management position, you’ll probably need a master’s degree and at least five years’ experience.

Source: CollegeBoard 2012 Book of Majors