Medical Manager
What you need to know
Medical and health services managers, also called healthcare executives or healthcare administrators, plan, direct, and coordinate medical and health services. They might manage an entire facility, a specific clinical area or department, or a medical practice for a group of physicians.
Most medical and health services managers work in offices in healthcare facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes, and group medical practices. Work during evenings or weekends may be required in healthcare settings that are open at all hours, such as hospitals and nursing homes.
Some of the things medical and health services managers might do:
- Improve efficiency and quality in delivering healthcare services
- Develop departmental goals and objective
- Ensure that the facility in which they work is up to date on and compliant with laws and regulations
- Recruit, train, and supervise staff members
- Manage the finances of the facility, such as patient fees and billing
- Create work schedules
- Prepare and monitor budgets and spending to ensure departments operate within funding limits
- Represent the facility at investor meetings or on governing boards
- Keep and organize records of the facility’s services, such as the number of inpatient beds used
- Communicate with members of the medical staff and department heads
- Analytical skills. Medical and health services managers must understand and follow current regulations and adapt to new laws.
- Communication skills. These managers must effectively communicate policies and procedures to other health professionals and ensure their staff’s compliance with new laws and regulations.
- Detail oriented. Medical and health services managers must pay attention to detail. They might be required to organize and maintain scheduling and billing information for very large facilities, such as hospitals.
- Interpersonal skills. Medical and health services managers discuss staffing problems and patient information with other professionals, such as physicians and health insurance representatives.
- Leadership skills. These managers are often responsible for finding creative solutions to staffing or other administrative problems. They must hire, train, motivate, and lead staff.
- Technical skills. Medical and health services managers must stay up to date with advances in healthcare technology and data analytics. For example, they may need to use coding and classification software and electronic health record (EHR) systems as their facility adopt these technologies.
The average pay for medical and health services managers in the United States was $110,680 in May 2023 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A medical and health services manager’s pay depends on factors such as level of experience, education and training, geographic location, and specific industry.
About 54,700 new job openings for medical and health services managers are projected each year, on average, over the next 10 years in the United States.
Overall employment of medical and health services managers is projected to grow 28 percent from 2022 to 2032 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is much faster than the average growth rate for all occupations.
As the large baby-boom population ages and people remain active later in life, there should be increased demand for healthcare services.
In addition, widespread use of electronic health records will continue to create demand for managers with knowledge of health information technology and informatics systems.
Medical and health services managers typically need at least a bachelor’s degree to enter the occupation. However, master’s degrees are common and sometimes preferred by employers. Graduate programs often last between 2 and 3 years and may include up to 1 year of supervised administrative experience in a hospital or healthcare consulting setting.
Prospective medical and health services managers typically have a degree in health administration, health management, nursing, public health administration, or business administration. Degrees that focus on both management and healthcare combine business-related courses with courses in medical terminology, hospital organization, and health information systems.
Discover some of the courses you will take pursuing a degree in Public Health or Management and Leadership.
