Healthcare training may help you understand and apply medical concepts, but it doesn’t prepare you for board meetings, budgets, and human capital management. Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) programs teach students about the business world. Graduates develop an understanding of all things business, from accounting to marketing, finance to information systems, and strategy to basic management techniques. These skills help MBAs become well-rounded business professionals.
Healthcare MBAs take that holistic focus a bit further and apply those concepts to the healthcare industry. Healthcare is the largest industry in the country and ranks as the second-largest employer. In other words, there are solid opportunities for people interested in healthcare management roles and the market is growing.
Here are some reasons why you should consider a healthcare MBA:
1. You're Already Working in Healthcare, and You’d Like to Advance Your Role
A healthcare MBA can help open doors for people who are already working in the healthcare field but want to develop business and leadership skills to get to the next level. Being a healthcare administrator, manager, or executive requires business knowledge and a firm understanding of business concepts as well as knowledge about the healthcare industry, its regulations, and best practices. Healthcare MBA students have a chance to build on what they know.
2. You Want to Be a Healthcare Manager
While a general MBA program would help you gain an understanding of business concepts from a variety of disciplines, it wouldn't help you understand enough about the healthcare industry to become a meaningful addition to most healthcare organizations. While management concepts can be applied, in general, it takes a firm grasp of the healthcare industry and the unique demands of a health treatment facility to be able to manage within the healthcare industry. If you are someone who has some business management experience but has never worked in for a healthcare facility and think you would like to, a healthcare MBA can give you the skills you need.
3. You Like Business But Want Security Above All Else
One of the best things about health care is that it is such a large industry and it is stable. All around the world, in every doctor’s office, hospital, outpatient clinic, diagnostics laboratory, physical therapy center, and wellness center, there are medical professionals who have not been trained on how to run a business. As the population grows, more healthcare professionals are needed, and those people will need managers. On the other side, the nature of the healthcare industry and recent trends such as wearable technologies that report health data mean that there is a role for entrepreneurial-minded students who see ways within the healthcare industry to apply business concepts, increase profitability, and use innovation to gain market advantage.
By training in both healthcare and business, healthcare MBAs can work throughout healthcare management, contributing to office management or helping oversee the development of healthcare products. Healthcare MBAs are designed to help people learn to manage operations within the healthcare industry. The focus of the degree is much more focused than a traditional MBA in that business concepts are expressed with regard to how business concepts and conventions can be applied toward the healthcare industry but that can be a good fit for someone who wants to work in the field or who has had considerable experience in healthcare.
Begin your Health Services Manager Career with an Online Master’s Degree
The George Washington Healthcare MBA degree features a convenient online format that is ideal for working professionals. Whether you are a nurse or an accountant, the balanced curriculum of the GW HCMBA track, with coursework spanning topics in finance, management, and modern healthcare, will prepare you for a career as a medical and health services manager.
Sources:
The George Washington University, "MBA vs. MHA: Which Degree Is Right for You?"