What is Healthcare Administration?

What is healthcare administration? It isn’t a complicated thing to understand, but the breadth of its impact might go deeper than most people realize.

When most people think about healthcare, they think about a doctor, a nurse or a hospital room. But healthcare is one of the most complex industries in the world.

Healthcare administration is the field of managing, organizing, financing and improving the systems that deliver healthcare to the patients that need it most.

At its heart, healthcare administration is about stewardship. It's about using limited resources to manage, design, and organize healthcare systems in a way that can deliver care safely, effectively, and equitably at scale.

Healthcare administrators don't treat or diagnose patients directly, but they can impact patient access to care, the timeliness of care, safety and quality, and the overall patient experience. They're also ensuring that healthcare systems are financially viable while enabling care to reach the communities that need it most.

Healthcare administration is so critical because in the U.S., care is often fragmented, expensive, and leaves questions about who is being left out of the system. Healthcare administration is where we ask those tough questions, like why is care so expensive? Are we deriving value from the care we're receiving? And are we leaving patients out of the system? 

Many of our graduates from healthcare administration go on to careers like hospital leadership, health system strategy, consulting, process improvement, and analytics. 

There are a lot of challenges in our health system, and those challenges won't be addressed by accident. They need thoughtful leadership from well-trained administrators.

What is healthcare administration? Healthcare administration is the field through which we improve the systems that serve patients.

Interested in learning more?

Jillian Torres, an assistant professor in our Department of Health Policy and Management, recently sat down with us to explain the core concepts of the field. Watch her video here!

Our Department of Health Policy and Management offers several advanced degrees aimed at developing management skills, including a Master of Health Administration.