What Can You Do With a Health Care Administration Degree?

The primary goal of any health care facility is to provide high-quality care that improves patient outcomes. Achieving this seemingly straightforward goal can be complex. It can involve everything from maintaining a safe environment to ensuring policy compliance and maintaining efficient billing systems.

The ability to manage the intricacies of this journey is what makes health care administrators so vital to a facility’s overall success, as they help control, influence, and maintain a health care facility’s ecosystem. Those seeking a degree in health administration can pursue several unique paths designed to help facilities operate effectively and efficiently. Explore what you can do with a health care administration degree, and how these roles can impact care delivery.

What’s a Health Administration Degree?

A health administration degree focuses on the organizational side of health care. It prepares students to take on leadership roles that impact how smoothly a facility operates on a daily basis. While they may not directly interact with patients in the same way that physicians or nurses do, their work can have a direct impact on patient interactions and ultimately affect patient outcomes.

The range of what you can do with a health administration degree is incredibly broad, including several different health care career pathways. For example, it can prepare graduates to oversee entire facilities and ensure the proper implementation of high-level health care delivery concepts, such as evidence-based practice. It can also prepare them to supervise crucial elements of health care operations, such as medical records security, health insurance coverage, or human resources.

Regardless of an individual’s path, health care administration roles are critical to helping patients consistently receive the best care possible. Their work eliminates system vulnerabilities and mitigates potential hiccups that may otherwise impede care efficiency. Having a significant impact on patients’ lives and medical facilities makes these health administration career paths uniquely satisfying.

What Students Learn In a Health Care Administration Program

Undergraduate health care administration programs focus on the foundational elements of health care operations and systems. The key concepts and theories examined within a program include:

Administrative roles within health care systems
Leadership strategies within health care administration
Achieving financial stability for health care facilities
Ethical codes and legal considerations in health care

In addition, some programs require students to take courses pertaining to health care and the medical field, such as anatomy and human nutrition. These courses can enable students to approach health care administration from a more holistic viewpoint. Health care administration programs also typically feature an experiential component, such as a capstone project or a practicum, allowing students to apply their knowledge in a controlled real-world environment.

Health Care Administration Skills

Succeeding as a health administrator requires graduates to cultivate a balance of both hard and soft skills. Some of these skills include the following:

Strong communication and active listening: Health administrators often oversee a team of individuals and interact with internal and external stakeholders. Learning how to interact and communicate effectively can be essential to an administrator’s success.
Problem solving: Health administrators manage programs that impact patient health, making the ability to solve complex problems critical.
Budgeting: Health care is expensive. From staffing to medications and procedures, every decision made within a health care organization needs to be factored into a budget.
Time management: Health administrators often wear multiple hats. By efficiently organizing where they dedicate their time, administrators can ensure that nothing gets overlooked.

The skills that graduates build during a health administration degree program are versatile and can open doors in a variety of industries.

Health Care Administration Career Paths

There are many options for what you can do with a health administration degree. While each role focuses on health care administration differently, they share the same goal of ensuring that a health care facility runs as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Those who invest in higher education and build valuable workplace experience can rise to the position of medical and health services manager, which includes senior health care administrators. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports a median annual salary of $117,960 for these professionals as of May 2024. The BLS also expects the overall employment of medical and health services managers to increase by 23% between 2024 and 2034, much higher than the national average.

For those who would like to explore other careers for graduates with a health administration degree, consider these options.

Long-Term Care Administrator

Long-term care administrators oversee the daily functions of long-term care facilities. Their goal is to ensure that patients receive holistic care in a safe, dignified environment. Their key duties include supervising staff, managing budgets, and ensuring compliance with federal and state regulations, including guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Those in the role may also collaborate with physical therapists to develop individualized care delivery strategies.

As of December 2025, Payscale listed the approximate median annual salary for long-term care administrators at around $102,700.

Health Care Consultant

Health care consultants help health care facilities evaluate operational procedures to find ways to improve care delivery. Those in the role typically work with a facility’s administrators or C-suite executives to determine the optimal balance between minimizing costs and maximizing revenue without disrupting patient outcomes and satisfaction. In addition to working with health care facilities, these consultants can work with health insurance companies, pharmaceutical organizations, and government agencies.

As of December 2025, Payscale listed the average approximate annual salary for health care consultants at around $92,330.

Health Care Manager

Health care managers oversee a health care facility’s workflow to maintain an efficient environment. Their scope of work can be at the macro or micro level, encompassing an entire facility, a specific health care department, or team. Some of the tasks executed within this role include hiring and training staff, managing schedules and budgets, and implementing facility policies and regulations.

As of June 2025, Payscale listed the average annual salary for health care managers at around $77,530.

Clinical Manager

Clinical managers oversee administrative and procedural duties to optimize facility effectiveness. While their work has some similarities to that of health care managers, they tend to focus on the strategic goal-oriented elements of care delivery. These strategies often involve evaluating the budget, determining staffing needs, ensuring compliance with changing federal and state regulations, and evaluating potential new procedures and innovations.

As of December 2025, Payscale listed the approximate average annual salary for clinical managers at around $78,880.

Patient Care Manager

Patient care managers evaluate patients’ needs and create personalized care strategies based on their findings. They also assess strategies to ensure they’re meeting specified goals and recommend strategic modifications to address vulnerabilities. Those in the role also educate patients on procedures and referrals and maintain patient records.

As of February 2025, Payscale listed the approximate average annual salary for patient care managers at around $76,030.

Make a Difference in Care Delivery

The health care administration field provides numerous ways for individuals to move care delivery forward as the field continues to evolve. Whether their work focuses on an entire facility or a specific department, what you can do with a health administration degree can make it possible for patients to get the best care to potentially improve their outcomes.

NCCU Online’s Bachelor of Science in Health Administration program can prepare you to guide a facility’s care strategies. Our program’s focus on the complexities of health care operations will help you gain the skills and insight needed to understand the business of care delivery and develop community-centered strategies.

Learn how we can help prepare you to make a difference in a critical field.

Recommended Readings

Careers in Health Information Management

Public Health vs. Health Administration: Exploring the Impact

What Is Health Services Management?

Sources:

Indeed, “18 Jobs You Can Get With a Degree in Healthcare Administration”

Indeed, “What Is a Healthcare Consultant? (And How to Become One)”

Payscale, Average Clinical Manager Salary

Payscale, Average Healthcare Consultant Salary

Payscale, Average Healthcare Manager Salary

Payscale, Average Long Term Care Administrator Salary