How to Become a Healthcare Administrator: Career Guide, Courses, Salary, Jobs, Scope

How to Become a Health Care Administrator: Quick Facts

What Does a Health Care Administrator Do?

The primary responsibility of a Health Care Administrator is to work with physicians, make policy decisions, foster an environment that can provide necessary and quality health care and lead marketing endeavors to ensure everything works out smoothly.

Steps to Become a Health Care Administrator

Some of the crucial steps that can be followed in order to become a Health Care Administrator are listed for your reference,

• Decision Making: Before beginning your career in the healthcare industry, you have to decide where your passion lies, whether you want to become a Health Care Administrator or pursue another profession. A career in the healthcare industry comes with a lot of challenges and difficulties and one must be passionate and dedicated to helping people in need of healthcare.
• Subject Choices: After completing the 10th standard, the initial step is to choose the correct subject in the 12th standard. If you wish to pursue your career in the healthcare industry, you must take physics, chemistry, mathematics/biology in 10+2/equivalent.
• Entrance Exam Preparation: After completing 10+2/equivalent, students must appear for AIMA UGAT and other entrance exams to earn their bachelor’s degree from a reputed university. After graduation, one must appear for CAT, MAT, XAT, GMAT, CMAT and other entrance exams if they wish to pursue their master’s degree from a reputed university.
• Selecting Correct Colleges: Selecting the correct college to begin your career is an important task. If you achieve a good score in an entrance exam, the chances of getting into the best university are higher. If you score low then you have to choose a university that accepts your marks.
• After Qualifying Exam: Completing the 10th & 12th standard is a basic step and clearing an entrance exam to take admission to a UG course is the start of a journey in the healthcare industry. After qualifying for an entrance exam, you have to obtain a 3-4 year UG degree and pursue your journey to complete an internship/residency/fellowship training to gain advanced knowledge.

Types of Health Care Administrators

• Assistant Health Manager/Administrator: An assistant health manager/administrator oversees and manages all the business and management tasks of hospitals like handling patient payments, balancing each department’s budget, managing group practices across various locations.
• Clinical Research Manager: Clinical research managers hold one of the most critical and responsible roles in the healthcare industry. They monitor and oversee all aspects of clinical trials that evaluate new meds and clinical devices. One must be proficient with financial management and budget planning to be a clinical research manager.
• Health Information Managers: Health information managers are responsible for organizing, overseeing, maintaining and ensuring that all patients' health information data and medical records are safe including but not limited to symptoms, diagnoses, medical histories, test results, and procedures.

Health Care Administrator Courses

To become a Health Care Administrator, students can begin their journey by earning a bachelor's degree in healthcare management (BBA) followed by a master's degree (MBA in Healthcare Management). To gain comprehensive knowledge and experience, an internship/ residency/ fellowship can be pursued by students.

BBA in Healthcare Management

BBA in healthcare management is a 3-year bachelor’s degree, initial steps for students looking to start their career in the healthcare industry.

Admission Process

• Admission to BBA in healthcare management will be done on the basis of the student’s scores in the entrance exam.
• The final selection will be done on a GD/PI round basis.
• Some universities offer admission to students on the national level entrance exam, some on a state-level entrance exam, whereas, some universities conduct their own entrance exams, depending on their requirement.

• Students taking admission through an entrance exam must score good marks to get in the qualified cut-off.

Eligibility Criteria

• Students must have passed 10+2/equivalent from a recognized board.
• Students must have scored at least 50% marks and have PCM/PCB (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics/Biology) as their major subjects.
• Students should be more than 17 years old while appearing for the exam.

• Students with a good score in the entrance exam as per each university cut-off are eligible.

MBA in Healthcare Management

MBA in healthcare management is a 2-year master’s degree. To become a professional in the healthcare industry, one must earn an MBA in healthcare management degree. The average fee for this program in India varies between INR 4-25 Lakhs, depending on the university (20-25 Lakhs if you are targeting an IIM).

Admission Process

• Admission to MBA in healthcare management will be done on the basis of an entrance exam.
• The final selection will be done on the basis of a written exam followed by GI-PI (Group Discussion and Personal Interview) rounds.

• Students looking to pursue this program must apply either for a national level entrance exam or can apply for a university-level exam (if you are targeting a particular university that conducts their own exam).