Healthcare Administration Salary | Healthcare Management Salary

By an allied health world contributing writer
Published: February 2nd, 2010

What is the salary for hospital administrators and healthcare managers?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary in May 2006 for healthcare managers was just over $73,000. Those who fell in the middle 50 percent earned between $57-95,000. Those who were considered to be in the lowest 10 percent earned under $45,000 and those in the highest 10 percent earned over $128,000.

In terms of which employment settings pay the best, according to the BLS, surgical hospitals tend to pay the best, on average close to $79,000 for managers/administrators. Outpatient centers, doctors' offices, nursing care facilities, and home healthcare all pay approximately $10,000 less on average. Within physicians' offices, administrators are paid better salaries if working in larger offices. Offices with six or fewer doctors had an average salary for administrators of just under $73,000, those with between 7 and 25 doctors averaged around $96,000, and those with greater than 26 doctors paid on average $133,000.

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Also, administrators' pay can vary based on the type of doctor's office they work for. The offices of cardiologists, dermatologists, and Healthcare Administration Salary

gastroenterologists tend to pay healthcare administrators the highest salaries. Family practice and internal medicine are the lower paying of the specialties for administrators, paying an average of just above $60,000 in 2006, according to the BLS.

Are the fields of healthcare management/administration in high demand?

According to the American College of Healthcare Executives, today there are approximately 100,000 individuals employed in healthcare administration/management positions throughout the United States. As is the case with most healthcare fields, there will continue to be increased demand for skilled healthcare executives due to the aging population and the new technologies constantly coming to fruition in this field. With the rapid changes the field of healthcare is constantly undergoing, skilled healthcare executives are essential to manage these changes.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, health manager positions are expected to grow 16 percent between the years 2006 and 2016. Managers are essential to keeping the business side of hospitals and other healthcare facilities operating properly and efficiently. It is their job to control costs and the security of patient records.

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Most managers are employed in hospital settings. However, a greater rate of growth is expected in physicians' offices and home healthcare agencies than hospitals because services that used to be exclusive to hospitals are now being offered in these other settings. Those individuals with experience working in the healthcare field who also have solid management and business skills will have a competitive advantage when applying for administrative positions.

Is there room for advancement in the field of healthcare administration?

Healthcare managers are already considered "advanced" from clinician roles. However, oftentimes clinicians don't desire to advance since they enjoy their role working with patients. Those who do choose to advance into more administrative roles and become managers can often advance to branch managers, then managers over an entire region, or even directors. Administrators are able to advance to department heads or even CEOs of an organization but that may require moving to larger hospitals. Others chose to move into more of an education role and become a professor of their specific field or partake in research.