A master's degree in medical office or healthcare administration is often required to be employed in more advanced healthcare managerial positions, and will provide job applicants with the best employment prospects. Here are three examples of areas that students may choose to specialize in:

• Clinical Management: Students studying clinical management learn to execute rules for the well-being of the office, articulate objectives, and make staff assessments. They coordinate schedules and are often responsible for recruiting, hiring, and terminating personnel.
• Nursing Home Administration: Graduates in supervisory roles at nursing homes primarily deal with admissions, budgeting, and organizing resident activities.
• Health Information: Duties for these individuals focus on safeguarding patients' medical records. They adhere to legislation and stay up to date with the latest software applications in order to ensure that confidential documents are secure.

• Bachelor's Degree: 4 years to complete
• Master's Degree: 2 years to complete
• Doctoral Degree: 4-5 years to complete

Like other fields, your educational path often determines how successful you will be in the medical administration industry. Some employers provide on-the-job training, although a formal education is generally preferred. Degree programs are offered at colleges, universities, and schools of public health. Many benefit from enrolling in programs at schools that are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME).

A bachelor's degree in medical administration takes about four years of full-time study. The programs give individuals rudimentary management skills and enable them to learn how to put business theory into practice. Students also refine skills in customer service, crisis management, and medical terminology.  Core classes include healthcare marketing, introduction to epidemiology, managed care, health planning, statistics in health research, legal aspects of healthcare, introduction to healthcare administration, and issues in health reform.

A common requirement for professionals in medical administration is a master's degree. The two-year programs provide individuals with the skills needed to advance in their supervisory roles by addressing topics, such as patient relations and facilities management. Main coursework included HMO processing, medical ethics, medical research methods, conflict negotiation, patient management, disaster preparation and crisis intervention. PhD students are required to commit four to five years to completing the degree program. Individuals learn in-depth facility processes and how to effectively conduct research and evaluate data. Doctoral graduates usually pursue careers as executive-level administrators, researchers, or university professors.

Certification requirements vary by area of concentration. The American Health Information Management Association, for instance, certifies individuals to become Registered Health Information Administrators once they pass an examination. Those specializing in nursing care administration are also required to be licensed anywhere in the United States. Professionals in other subfields voluntarily seek to confirm their status in the industry via career development association with related membership organizations, such as the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).

Medical office administration, also known as healthcare administration, is a special management program geared toward teaching students the ins and outs of running both an efficient business and a medical office with a high quality of care. Most programs have a core curriculum that includes course work in healthcare issues, economics, and management strategies; along with this core, students may choose to specialize their degree by taking electives in a certain concentration area, such as health finance, gerontology, information technology, or another subset of medical administration.

For example, the foundational core of classes might include a course titled Legal Issues in Healthcare Delivery, which focuses on the special dilemmas that can arise in a facility that is responsible for people's well being. Other classes, like Modeling and Operations Research, give students the technical tools to apply management science to their healthcare office, in order to improve its efficiency. All programs require healthcare managers to be well versed in the fiscal side of things, through classes like Financial Management of Health Services.

Students' electives in the program will depend on their areas of interest. For instance, a student specializing in quality of care might take a course titled Frontline Issues in Healthcare Administration, which discusses the ways that healthcare providers like doctors and nurses can affect the level of care a patient receives. On the other hand, someone focusing in management and operations might instead take Marketing of Health Services, which discusses how medical offices can increase their client base.

It depends on your program and your career background. Some medical office administration master's programs require students to participate in an intensive internship in a healthcare office in their local community to gain hands-on experience. Others simply recommend that students have experience working in such an office, or that they gain this experience during their degree program. Either way, it's a smart move to get real-world experience in healthcare administration before graduating, since many employers consider this a prerequisite for hiring.

Several other degree programs contain similar coursework and subject matter. A Master of Business Aadministration with a healthcare specialization could also provide a background to enter medical office administration, although the degree would contain more general business practices and fewer health policy courses. A degree in health policy would give students the skills to influence the dialogue on healthcare provision in our country, although it would not necessarily provide a management background. The degree in public administration would be appropriate for someone interested in applying their administration skills to government entities. Students more interested in social services rather than healthcare might be interested in pursuing a degree in human services administration.

Those who would like to become involved in the clinical aspect of healthcare should check out a master's degree in physician assisting, which teaches students the skills to aid in the diagnosis of disease.