Healthcare Administration Degrees

Careers in healthcare administration

How to Become a Hospital Administrator

Edited by Taylor Rupe, B.A. Psychology, University of Washington Seattle · B.S. Computer Science, Oregon State University

Last updated

Nothing legally stops you running a hospital. What actually gates this career is a chain of credentials nobody is obliged to tell you about, and the decision that matters most gets made years earlier than people expect: which master's program you enroll in, and whether it is accredited by the body the field recognizes.

The Credential Nobody Tells You About Until It Is Too Late

The route into hospital leadership runs through the postgraduate administrative fellowship: a one or two year placement inside a health system, working directly under its executives, which functions as the field's equivalent of a residency. It is competitive, it is how a large share of hospital executives started, and it is frequently restricted to graduates of CAHME-accredited master's programs.

That restriction is the single most consequential fact on this page, because it is applied after you have finished a two-year degree. CAHME is the only accreditor of master's-level healthcare management programs recognized by the US Department of Education and CHEA, and it lists 112 institutions. A great many programs marketing themselves to exactly this audience are not among them, and they do not volunteer it.

So the ordinary advice, pick an affordable program that fits your schedule, is wrong for this specific route in a way it is not wrong for practice management or long-term care. The master's rankings mark accreditation status on every program for that reason, and it carries more weight in the scoring than anything else.

The Steps to Become a Hospital Administrator

  1. Bachelor's degree. In healthcare administration, business, nursing, public health or finance. The bachelor's rankings cover the first of those. No accreditation question arises at this level, because CAHME does not accredit undergraduate degrees at all.
  2. Two to five years in a hospital operations role. Finance, quality, service line coordination, project management. Fellowships and master's programs both prefer applicants who have worked in the setting.
  3. The master's, if you are aiming at executive level. An MHA is the field's own degree; an MBA with a healthcare concentration and an MSHA are the common alternatives, and they are not interchangeable in the eyes of every employer. Accreditation status is the question to settle before cost.
  4. An administrative fellowship, if you can get one. This is the accelerator, and the step the accreditation choice above either preserves or removes.
  5. FACHE in mid-career. Once a master's, an executive post and 5 years of management experience are behind you. What the FACHE credential actually asks for is set out separately.

Steps one through three are ten years or so for most people, and the fellowship route compresses what comes after. Anyone describing hospital administration as a fast track has left out the decade.

What FACHE Actually Asks For

Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives is the credential you see after the names of hospital executives, and it is routinely misdescribed as something a graduate can work toward immediately. ACHE's own requirements make clear that it cannot be: a master's or other post-baccalaureate degree, a current executive healthcare management position, a minimum of 5 years of healthcare management experience, 1 year of tenure as an ACHE member, at least 36 continuing education credits in the past 3 years, and 4 volunteer activities, two civic and two in healthcare.

The fees are $250 for the Fellow application and $225 to register for the Board of Governors Exam before each attempt, and ACHE states the exam fee is waived for completed applications submitted between 1 March and 30 June. The exam may be retaken as often as needed within a two year eligibility window.

For a reader choosing a degree today, the useful takeaway is not the fee schedule but the shape: FACHE sits behind a master's and half a decade of management. It is a reason to care about the master's decision, not a thing to plan for now.

What Does a Hospital Administrator Earn?

A median of $123,860, and a ninetieth percentile of $224,340. The figures cover the whole occupation, which contains hospital administration along with practice and long-term care management, and hospital executive roles sit toward the upper end of it, which makes that ninetieth percentile the number worth planning against.

National wage distribution for SOC 11-9111, BLS OEWS May 2025
Lowest tenth earn under $73,390
Lower quarter earn under $94,700
Median $123,860
Upper quarter earn over $166,100
Top tenth earn over $224,340
People employed 597,080

BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 11-9111 (Medical and Health Services Managers). These figures cover the occupation across employers and experience levels. A percentile identifies a position in the wage distribution, not a career stage or a starting salary. See the BLS wage definitions.

The distribution is worth reading carefully on this page in particular. Someone planning a decade of study and progression toward the ninetieth percentile is making a long bet, and the median is the more honest number for the years in between.

Questions About Becoming a Hospital Administrator

Do you need a master's degree to become a hospital administrator?
Not legally, and not for every job with the title. Department-level management inside a hospital is reachable on a bachelor's plus experience. Executive tracks are a different matter: the master's is the working expectation, and the postgraduate administrative fellowships that lead into senior leadership are frequently restricted to graduates of CAHME-accredited programs. So the master's functions less as a legal requirement than as the thing that keeps the route open.
Does it matter if a master's program is CAHME-accredited?
For this route specifically, more than anything else about the program. CAHME is the only accreditor of master's-level healthcare management programs recognized by the US Department of Education and CHEA, and it lists 112 institutions. Of the 414 master's programs ranked on this site, 103 carry it. A reader who picks an unaccredited program and later applies for fellowships finds out two years too late.
What is FACHE and do you need it?
Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the field's senior professional credential. You do not need it to work, and you cannot get it early: ACHE requires a master's degree, a current executive-level position, at least 5 years of healthcare management experience, 1 year of ACHE membership tenure, 36 continuing education credits within 3 years and 4 volunteer activities. It is a mid-career milestone, not an entry ticket.
What does FACHE cost?
$250 for the Fellow application plus $225 to register for the Board of Governors Exam, payable before each attempt. ACHE states it waives the exam fee for completed applications submitted between 1 March and 30 June. Those are the direct costs; the continuing education behind the requirement is the larger expense.
What does a hospital administrator earn?
Hospital administrators are counted within Medical and Health Services Managers, which earns a national median of $123,860 and has a ninetieth percentile of $224,340. Hospital executive roles sit toward the upper end of that occupation-wide distribution, which makes the ninetieth percentile the more useful figure to plan against.

Routes That Take Less Than a Decade

This is the longest and most credentialed way into healthcare management. If the decade of study is unappealing, practice management reaches a comparable job with far fewer formal requirements, and long-term care substitutes a license for the master's. The field overview compares all four routes.

Sources for This Hospital Administrator Profile