Health Administration MHA Programs in Mississippi & Salary Info.

Health administration and management became a stable and promising career field for professionals with either bachelor’s or master’s degrees.

Entry-level jobs in healthcare management require as little as a bachelor’s degree, while those at the senior level and within large healthcare organizations usually look for professionals with master’s degrees in healthcare administration or a similar field.

Health Administration Degrees in Mississippi

There are no schools that offer CAHME-accredited healthcare administration programs on campus in Mississippi, so students must select from accredited online programs offered.

A bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration and management in Mississippi is structured as either Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) or Bachelor of Health Administration (BHA).

Both of these undergraduate programs are designed to prepare students to become leaders in contemporary healthcare settings.

The undergraduate programs are usually the same in the majority of school, and their curriculum usually includes four years of full-time study and about 120-semester credits with the following coursework:

• Introduction to healthcare administration
• Health finance and budgeting
• Healthcare, society, and culture
• Public policy and healthcare
• Law and health systems
• Organizational behavior

Graduate Degrees in Healthcare Administration and Management are nowadays taken as a standard requirement for upper-level positions.

Once you get your master’s degrees in healthcare administration, you will be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to occupy positions as administrators in large hospital systems, consulting firms, managed care organizations, and insurance companies, among many others.

Which title you will get upon graduation depends on the structure and design of healthcare administration master’s degree programs in the school in which you decide to enroll and they may be the following:

• Master of Business Administration (MBA) (health administration concentration)
• Master of Health Services Administration (MHSA)
• Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA)
• Master of Public Administration (MPA) (health administration concentration)
• Master of Public Health (MPH) (health administration concentration)

All master’s degrees are designed so as to educate future healthcare administration leaders and allow them to make significant contributions to the success of any healthcare organization.

Master’s degree programs in Mississippi can be attended on campus, but there are many advancing professionals who are looking for executive programs that include distance learning, part-time/evening classes, and accelerated learning opportunities, and their desires are met through either fully online programs or a hybrid of on-campus/online learning experiences.

The core curriculum of master’s programs is more advanced and often includes studying:

• Management of healthcare organizations
• Health policy
• Analytical methods for health management
• Global public health
• Ethical leadership in health management and policy
• Financial aspects of healthcare management
• Healthcare financial management

Admission requirements vary from one institution to the other, but they all require a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university which does not need to be in healthcare administration and related majors.

The areas which are accepted are business, finance, human resources, communications, and accounting.

If you want to enroll in executive programs, they generally require some type of experience in a healthcare administration-related field.

So as to be allowed admission, you will need to meet the requirements set by the school staff, including:

• Minimum undergraduate GPA
• Minimum GRE scores
• Admissions essay/interview

The completion of a master’s thesis or a capstone project that allows students to further explore a specific topic within healthcare administration and management is obligatory by the end of the studies.

Job Postings in Healthcare Administration in Mississippi

The biggest employers in Mississippi’s healthcare sector are six hospitals that are combined to create the new Merit Health System.

According to the Mississippi Business Journal, this healthcare system is expected to expand access to primary and specialty care across the central Mississippi region and health administrators and managers will work to create and refine this new structure.

Being that this will create new job opportunities for the residents of Mississippi,  graduates of healthcare administration and management degrees will be able to find jobs in a variety of settings in Mississippi.

The following list of recent job posts is made to show you types of jobs that may be available in the field of healthcare administration in Mississippi and what kind of education is necessary for specific positions:

• Director, Regional Trauma Program Director, New Albany – He/she will be in charge of the development, implementation, and evaluation of the trauma program, so a bachelor’s degree is required, while a master’s degree in business administration, healthcare administration, nursing, or a related field is preferred.
• Children’s Quality Manager, Jackson – This professional will develop and manage programs and will wok on the improvement of quality, safety, patient flow, customer satisfaction, and medical staff satisfaction; the position requires a bachelor’s degree in nursing and five years of RN experience or a bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration and five years of clinical experience.
• Business Development Representative, Flowood – The duty of this person will be to collaborate with division clinical and business development leaders, so this position requires a bachelor’s degree in business, healthcare administration, public administration, or a related field.
• Director of Quality Health Improvement Initiatives, Jackson – He/she will improve clinical performance through workflow redesign, process improvements, and care management; a bachelor’s degree in nursing, healthcare administration, or the equivalent is required, while owners of a master’s degree in nursing, healthcare administration, or the equivalent will be given preference.

Possible Employers and Professional Resources for Health Administrators in Mississippi

Mississippi’s hospital and health systems offer entry-level jobs and professional advancement opportunities for healthcare administrators and managers:

• North Mississippi Medical Center, Tupelo
• Allegiance Specialty Hospital of Greenville, Greenville
• Alliance Healthcare System, Holly Springs
• Alliance Health Center, Meridian
• Anderson Regional Medical Center, Meridian
• Merit Health Central, Jackson
• Merit Health Biloxi, Biloxi

You can join professional associations which allow healthcare administrators and managers in Mississippi to connect with others in their industry and stay up to date on current events:

• Mississippi Hospital Association
• Mississippi Rural Hospital Alliance
• Mississippi Medical Directors Association
• Medical Group Management Association

Health Administration Salaries and Job Growth in Mississippi

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical and health services managers in Mississippi earn a median salary of $101309 per year.

Employees with the most experience and responsibility have a much higher salary of $114257.

The state Department of Employment Security projects a 13.3 percent increase in job opportunities, resulting in 260 openings per year.

Regional Salary in Mississippi