Hospital administrators oversee the organizational side of health services. Either working in a team or independently, they make sure a medical facility is employing effective and efficient practices that deliver the best care possible. What a doctor is to a patient, a hospital administrator is to a medical facility. And keeping a large organization healthy requires a robust and multidimensional skillset.

On a concrete level, a bachelor’s degree in a related field is the bare minimum of education required to be a hospital administrator. However, many hospital administrators have master’s degrees (often MHAs or MBAs) that provide both the advanced technical knowledge and the leadership skills necessary to run a large, multi-faceted, health organization. Hospital administrators need to be competent in analysis, communication, and maintaining collaborative relationships. And those competencies have to be grounded in a strong technical understanding and a detail-oriented approach that can effectively handle the industry’s nuances.

In effect, hospital administrators save lives, but they do so in complex and varied ways.