The healthcare management career path offers great pay, excellent benefits, and a field that will be stable throughout your life, so it’s easy to see why it’s so popular!
Believe it or not, healthcare jobs are even expected to grow by 15% throughout this decade!
If you’re looking to get a headstart on your career, you may want to look for entry-level healthcare management jobs, but are they worth it? Let’s talk about that.
Entry-Level Healthcare Management Jobs: Medical Office Administrator
The best entry-level work prior to becoming a manager is administration work. If you can get the administration skills down, that will give you a huge boost to your future management prospects, since it is a large portion of the job.
You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the medical field and learn what day-to-day tasks are needed to keep a facility running.
These jobs typically only require a high school diploma, but may also require a one or a two-year postsecondary certificate. Different facilities will vary.
Medical Administrative Assistant
You may not want to see the word “assistant” if you’re looking to become a manager, but this will give you a great inside look at the management level of healthcare.
Not only that, but it only requires a high school diploma, so you could even work this profession part-time while you are studying in your healthcare field. Some hospitals will require an associate’s degree or a medical receptionist certificate, but not all.
Medical Coding And Billing
This is a promising career itself, but it also gives you experience working with insurance companies, administration, and the behind-the-scenes work in a medical setting.
Coders translate procedures and diagnoses into codes in order to send them to insurance companies for billing purposes. Coders will need to be on the ball with how things are labelled. So knowing the answer to “what is diagnosis code e78.5?” – for instance, will help with ensuring the proper billing protocols are being handled and that patients are being managed appropriately.
In order to get started in this field, you will need to take an accredited medical coding training, pass an exam, and maintain your certification throughout your career.
Health Information Technician
You may find this position listed as medical records technician, but it is still an IT position.
Knowing the ins and outs of computers is definitely useful in the medical field today, and getting involved in IT from the start is a promising career path. Technicians are responsible for overseeing and evaluating the medical records of a healthcare facility.
This career typically requires a bachelor’s degree, but often only an associate’s. You must then pass the Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Association (AHIIMA) exam.
Medical Executive Assistant
This is a job where you might actually get some serious experience with overseeing or managing projects, and you’ll be working closely with top-level administrators.
A common task for people in this position is writing grant proposals, which gives you a chance to amaze your managers if you can bring in some money! That’s a great way to make friends in the business.
There is a lot to do in this position, though. It’s similar to a medical secretary, but at a higher level and workload. People in this position work closely with healthcare providers in all aspects of administration. This includes billing, administrative duties, and often overseeing staff. These are all translatable skills for a future management position.
Become A Medical Professional
Maybe you want to go to nursing school, or maybe you’re becoming an EMT! No matter what your specific field is, there will always be a need for management within it, and starting from the bottom and working your way up is never a bad way to start!
Regardless of the job, having hands-on experience with the department you would like to oversee is always going to be beneficial down the road.
If you want to prepare for the leap into management once you have the experience, or maybe even get an early start, there are plenty of healthcare management online courses that can prepare you for your future career and give you a head start over the competition! Once you have some translatable experience and healthcare management training, you’re already ahead of the game!
Patient Services Representative
This position has several different titles like service coordinators, patient access specialists, and others, depending on the facility. However, people in this position are generally responsible for making sure patients are informed, up-to-date, and taken care of during their stays or their medical process.
They may need to explain policies and procedures to patients and communicate their concerns or requests to the appropriate medical professional. There will also be plenty of day-to-day administrative tasks for people in this role.
This job does not typically require a degree, but it usually requires at least 2 years of relevant experience.
Healthcare Human Resources
Anything in the HR department is a great path toward a promising management career. Starting out as an HR assistant is a great way to get your foot in the door! These jobs require a lot of administrative work, like keeping track of information for all staff and management in the facility.
This role will also help with translatable management skills like disciplinary actions, following up with employee grievances, carrying out performance reviews, and plenty more.
These jobs typically require a bachelor’s degree in human services, human resources, business, or another related field. A master’s degree will help you advance, but isn’t necessary.
Build Your Career Today!
Now that you know a few entry-level healthcare management jobs, there is no time like the present to get started! The field is growing, the pay is good, and medical jobs are often very fulfilling.
Keep working toward your goals and stay up to date with us on the latest trends to help you grow in your career!
