July 5th, 2023
What Can You Do with an MBA in Healthcare?
While an MBA teaches you high-level business acumen, an MBA with a health care administration concentration prepares you specifically for leadership careers in the multi-trillion-dollar healthcare industry. You gain specialized knowledge about the unique challenges, regulations, and responsibilities healthcare administrators face and learn ways to navigate complex healthcare systems. You learn to manage a healthcare team and optimize results. Your MBA can set you up for a long and rewarding career where what you do truly makes a difference in the lives of others.
Careers with an MBA in Healthcare
There are many doors an MBA in Healthcare may open for you including:
Healthcare Administrator
Think of a healthcare administrator as the doctor in charge of the overall health of an organization. While a clinician’s job is to help patients stay healthy, a healthcare administrator’s job is to keep the organization healthy. You develop the strategy, create budgets, and oversee operations like finance, quality control, human resources, and data management.
Other titles for a healthcare administrator include medical and health services manager, hospital administrator, physician practice administrator, clinical practice administrator, and nursing home administrator. No matter the work setting or job title, a healthcare administrator is a critical member of the healthcare team, helping to ensure that patients receive the care they need, while being treated with respect and dignity.
Salaries for healthcare administrators can vary widely, depending on where you live, your years of experience, and the type of facility you manage, but the median salary for medical and health service managers in 2021 was more than $100,000.
Clinical Manager
While the healthcare administrator is responsible for the health of the organization, a clinical manager is responsible for individual departments. As a clinical manager, you may create the department budget, develop goals and strategies, and manage people in the department. Some clinical managers may be asked to oversee more than one department. You make a difference for patients by ensuring that the department runs efficiently and that the patient care team members receive the support they need to effectively do their jobs.
The average salary for a clinical manager is $74,536.
Clinician Leader
In a healthcare organization, it’s not unusual for a physician, nurse, or another healthcare practitioner to take on a leadership role, such as department chair. Many clinicians advance into higher roles. An MBA in Health Care Administration can prepare a clinician with the business knowledge that’s needed for these leadership roles.
As a leader, you combine your hands-on experience with MBA insights for organizational improvement that can directly impact those you entered the field of medicine to serve—your patients.
If you’re a registered nurse interested in pursuing a Master's of Science in Nursing (MSN), too, you may be interested in an MSN + MBA Dual Degree program so you can get both degrees at the same time.
Strategic Project Manager
Strategic project managers in healthcare support business transformation initiatives. As a project manager, you plan, manage, and execute the project. This typically means you will define the project goals and scope, create a step-by-step plan for its execution including budget and milestones, pull in the right team members to be part of the team, and oversee the project as it’s carried out.
The projects you oversee can make a difference for patients—from overseeing a hospital or clinic remodel to ensuring departments meet new quality regulations to revamping the organization’s emergency preparedness plan.
The average salary for a project manager in healthcare is $74,386.
Health Policy Analyst
An MBA in Health Care Administration can also prepare you to become a health policy analyst, where you can have an impact on improving people’s health. Health policy analysts often work for government agencies or nonprofits. A health policy analyst is like a detective. You investigate current policies to see if they work and note how they could be improved. You also help to develop new policies and analyze the effect they may have on community health.
The average salary for a health policy analyst is $70,076.
Set Yourself Up for Success with an MBA in Health Care
An MBA with a concentration in Health Care Administration prepares you for a variety of careers. At Limestone University, you’ll expand your skills in areas like accounting, financial management, leadership, and organizational development while gaining healthcare-specific knowledge with courses like Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Ethics/Legal, and Healthcare Leadership and Change.
Are you ready to pursue a career in Health Care Administration? Get started by requesting information about our program.
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)
The Health Care Administration concentration of the Master of Business Administration program offers the opportunity to expand skills in Accounting, Financial Management, Management, Leadership, Organizational Development, and Quality Management. Students will continue the development of their decision-making, leadership, motivation, problem-solving, and teamwork skills.
