Four Reasons to be a Healthcare Administrator

If you’ve been thinking about going into the field of healthcare for a while, then you’ve probably spoken to a few friends and family members about your future career. How many of them have assumed you’ll be training to be a doctor or nurse? Yet the great thing about the healthcare profession is that there are many different roles where you can make a difference to patients and families – including in healthcare administration.

If you’re great at organization, managing people and can keep up to date on the latest policies you and your colleagues will need to know, then becoming a healthcare administrator might be the job for you. These are some of the great reasons why you should pursue this route in your healthcare career.

You will be a Pillar of your Community

Few people can earn more respect in a community than those who work within healthcare – and, as a healthcare administrator, you will be one of the public faces of your organization. You can use your role in your community and your reputation to do good beyond your place of work, too. You could even help promote or sponsor local resources, such as parks, schools or libraries, for instance.

It may be that your organization skills become more necessary in your area. If you work at a local hospital, for example, there could be thousands of people who live locally – and you will be responsible for protecting their livelihoods.

You Can Make a Difference

Healthcare administrators are also responsible for creating the conditions that doctors and nurses need to do their jobs well. You will need to keep to your budget and check that everything is running smoothly – and you’ll have the chance to make a difference to maybe even hundreds of patients who come into contact with your organization.

You get a Good Salary with Opportunities

The average salary for those working in healthcare in 2016 was $65,000 – and the more experience you get, the higher your salary will be. If you’ve worked in the healthcare sector previously, then you’ll be able to command a higher starting healthcare administrator salary. You can expect to have a six-figure salary if you end up in charge of managing large groups of healthcare professionals.

About 30% of healthcare administrators work in hospitals – so where do the other 70% work? You could go and work with many other employers, including outpatient clinics, rehabilitation centers, mental health care facilities or even health insurance organizations.

You get Job Security

The demand for healthcare is higher than it has even been and is expected to grow. CNN Money rankings had previously given the role of hospital administrator an A grade for job satisfaction, growth, security and benefit to society, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a growth rate of 22% in this sector from 2010 to 2020. So if you perform well in your role, you can generally expect to have secure employment – and you’ll feel positive about how you help provide healthcare to your community.

Thanks to Zaklina