Medical and Health Services Manager Career Overview
Last Updated March 27, 2024
A silver tsunami is crashing onto the nation’s healthcare system. As aging Baby Boomers increase the need for long-term and geriatric care while striving to remain active in their golden years, they are expecting more from their wellness and healthcare services.
In short, the healthcare industry must expand to meet the needs of an aging population and embrace innovation to make care more convenient, accessible and affordable. Healthcare needs skilled leadership from medical and health services managers to meet these heightened needs and oversee a rapidly changing healthcare system.
What is a Medical and Health Services Manager?
Medical and health services managers are a critical component for a smoothly operating healthcare organization, overseeing the daily services and operations in a healthcare organization, which can include hospitals and hospital systems, group medical practices, continuing-care or nursing homes and hospice care facilities. Their specific tasks may vary by the organization they support.
For example, innovation in healthcare technology has enabled many medical group practices to expand the types of procedures they can provide, shifting some services previously only available in hospitals to health practitioners’ offices. This will likely heighten the need for medical and health services managers with expanded skill sets to oversee these more complex practices.
Regardless of the type of healthcare organization, a medical and health services manager must navigate changes in laws, regulations, technology and organizational needs all in an effort to increase the amount of time healthcare professionals, like doctors and nurses, can devote to preventative care. Medical and health services managers may be behind the scenes when it comes to patient care, but they are leading and directing that care at a high level to ensure services are administered efficiently and effectively.
What Does a Medical and Health Services Manager Do?
Keeping a healthcare organization running smoothly entails multiple day-to-day responsibilities for the medial and health services manager, including:
- Improving efficiency and quality of healthcare services within the organization
- Establishing goals and objectives for facility departments
- Overseeing work schedules
- Managing organizational finances and billing
- Establishing departmental budgets and ensuring departments adhere to them
- Representing the healthcare organization at board and investor meetings
- Communicating with medical professionals and department heads
- Recruiting, coaching and managing staff
- Collaborating with medical staff, including physicians, surgeons, registered nurses, and additional healthcare workers
Depending on the type of organization or facility, the medical and health services manager might not work the typical nine-to-five schedule. Many healthcare facilities, like emergency rooms and clinics, operate around the clock, so in addition to standard full-time hours, the medical and health services manager may also need to be on call for organizational emergencies.
Medical and Health Services Manager Salary and Career Growth
As need spikes for medical procedures and healthcare facilities to support the nation’s aging population, more physicians, facilities and programs will be needed to support and administer care. All healthcare occupations are slated to grow faster than the average rate for all other occupations with about 1.8 million new jobs needed every year on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).1
More managers will be necessary to oversee these healthcare operations. Employment of medical and health services managers is predicted to grow rapidly, even when compared to the overall growth in healthcare occupations, with a projected 28% job growth rate over this same time frame, according to BLS statistics.
This healthy job growth has an equally bright salary outlook. According to 2022 BLS figures, medical and health services managers earned a median income of $104,830, with the highest 10% commanding more than $209,000. The industries with the highest salary potential were government institutions and hospital systems.2
The managerial and administrative responsibilities coupled with the needed leadership and business acumen to excel in the position can set medical and health services managers towards advancement into top executive roles. Chief administrative officer, chief executive officer and chief of managed care are just some of the hospital and health system C-suite positions requiring the strategy, critical-thinking and people-management skills successful medical and health services managers strive to gain and develop in the role.
How to Become a Medical and Health Services Manager?
Medical and health services managers must blend healthcare expertise with business prowess, and most professionals typically need at least a bachelor’s degree to begin this career, though master’s degrees are prevalent and, in many healthcare organizations, preferred. Ideally, these advanced degrees blend both management and healthcare to prepare future leaders to effectively oversee increasingly complex and critical healthcare systems.
For the experienced clinical healthcare professional looking to make the move into the administrative role of medical and health services manager or aiming for that ultimate C-suite position, pursuing a master’s degree with a focus in health administration, public health administration, healthcare management or business administration with a healthcare management focus can build on their patient care knowledge with the analytical, critical thinking and business leadership skills healthcare organizations desire in their executive leadership ranks.
MSU’s M.S. in Healthcare Management is designed to support future medical and health services managers through a degree program that is business based and healthcare specific. The interdisciplinary approach equips these leaders to champion collaborative leadership, evidence-based decision making, and strategic and tactical thinking in the dynamic healthcare organization of tomorrow.
1Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Healthcare Occupations. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm (visited March 27, 2024).
2Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Medical and Health Services Managers. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/medical-and-health-services-managers.htm#tab-5 (visited March 27, 2024).
National long-term projections may not reflect local and/or short-term economic or job conditions and do not guarantee actual job growth. Information provided is not intended to represent a complete list of hiring companies or job titles, and degree program options do not guarantee career or salary outcomes. Students should conduct independent research on specific employment information.
