What Can You Do With a Healthcare Administration Degree?

If you're interested in shaping how healthcare organizations operate and deliver care to their communities, a degree in healthcare administration may be worth exploring. The field spans a wide range of private and public health settings, and earning a Master of Healthcare Administration degree may help you build knowledge relevant to roles across this range of settings.¹

A healthcare administration degree may also help develop your role as a leader with advanced skills and knowledge of the healthcare industry. You may learn about quality management and process improvement, including trends and market forces that impact quality patient care. Healthcare administrators may need to adapt to changes in healthcare laws, regulations, and technology as the field continues to evolve.¹,²

Typical Career Paths With a Healthcare Administration Degree

A degree in healthcare administration may help you build foundational knowledge relevant to roles across a variety of healthcare settings. Some typical career paths may include:¹

• Hospital administrator
• Clinical director
• Health services manager
• Practice manager

What Do Healthcare Administrators Typically Do?

A healthcare administration degree may help prepare students for roles such as hospital administrator, clinical director, health services manager, and practice manager, among others.¹ Those in healthcare administration and management may typically plan, direct, and coordinate the business activities of healthcare providers, overseeing facilities, departments, or medical practices while adapting to changes in healthcare laws, regulations, and technology.²

In group medical practices, medical and health services managers may work closely with physicians. Those in this field may manage an entire facility, a specific clinical area or department, or a medical practice, and may oversee a wide range of operational and administrative functions. Responsibilities may vary by employer, and those in larger organizations may focus on broad oversight, while those in smaller settings may also take on more direct operational tasks.²

Typical responsibilities may include:²

• Developing goals and objectives related to efficiency and quality of healthcare services
• Ensuring the facility or practice complies with applicable laws and regulations
• Preparing and monitoring budgets and managing finances, including patient fees and billing
• Recruiting, training, and supervising staff members
• Creating work schedules
• Representing the facility or department at investor meetings or on governing boards
• Keeping and organizing records of facility services
• Hiring, scheduling, and evaluating staff and monitoring compliance with state and federal guidelines
• Developing reports and budgets for their departments or facilities

Important qualities for those in this field may include analytical skills to review and evaluate healthcare metrics, communication skills to convey information effectively to staff and other healthcare workers, strong attention to detail, leadership skills to hire and motivate staff, and technical skills to stay current with advances in healthcare technology such as electronic health record systems.³

The largest employers of medical and health services managers may include hospitals, offices of physicians, nursing and residential care facilities, government organizations, and outpatient care centers.⁴

Employment of medical and health services managers is projected to grow 23% from 2024 to 2034.⁵

What Skills Will I Gain?

Rasmussen University's online Master of Healthcare Administration program is designed to help students develop competencies that may apply across a range of roles and settings. The curriculum is academically aligned to the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) Health Leadership Competency Model^©, which identifies interdisciplinary factors required of leaders to develop and manage an effective healthcare environment. The following are skill areas that students in the program work toward:¹

Healthcare Leadership and Critical Thinking
Develop change management, teamwork, negotiation and motivational skills for the ability to navigate challenges in fast-paced, demanding workplaces.

Leveraging Healthcare Technologies
Keep pace with the constantly changing influences on healthcare delivery across patient experience, quality management and process improvement.

Strategic Planning and Decision-Making
Leverage data, technology and organizational behavior to design and implement strategic plans for organization change in alignment with the large market forces and trends driving services, quality of patient care and costs.

Population Health
Critically evaluate healthcare data from multiple sources to determine patterns of actionable information for disease management. May learn to plan for high-demand services on public health and the patient experience.

Considering Healthcare Administration careers

A healthcare administration degree may offer an opportunity to explore how organizations may plan, manage, and improve the delivery of health services. Through career-focused curriculum and practical, hands-on opportunities, the program might help you build knowledge relevant to roles across a range of healthcare settings.¹

Rasmussen University’s Master of Healthcare Administration degree program has not been approved by any state professional licensing body, and this program is not intended to lead to any state-issued professional license. For further information on professional licensing requirements, please contact the appropriate board or agency in your state of residence.

The responsibilities and focus of these careers may vary depending on the organization, care setting, and community being served. Check out job postings or network with professionals in the field to help you get to know the range of opportunities available and identify which paths may align with your interests and goals.²,⁵

Earning a degree does not guarantee employment or specific job outcomes. Employment conditions in your area may vary.

¹Rasmussen University, Master of Healthcare Administration, at https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/master-healthcare-administration/ (accessed April 29, 2026).
²Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Medical and Health Services Managers, at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm#tab-2 (accessed April 29, 2026). Employment conditions in your area may vary.
³Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Medical and Health Services Managers, at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm#tab-4 (accessed April 29, 2026). Employment conditions in your area may vary.
⁴Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Medical and Health Services Managers, at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm#tab-3 (accessed April 29, 2026). Employment conditions in your area may vary.
⁵Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Medical and Health Services Managers, at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm#tab-6 (accessed April 29, 2026). Employment conditions in your area may vary.

Health Leadership Competency Model^© is a registered copyright of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership.