Tag Archives: Healthcare Management

Health Professionals

Questions Answered: What is the difference between environmental health, health care administration and health information management?

Health ProfessionalsQuestion: Can you explain to me what is difference between environmental health, health care administration, and health information management? Also the salary they make each year and which is the best degree are hire more? ~ Laura P.

Answer: Thank you for your follow-up question to our “What is the Difference Between Healthcare Management and Healthcare Administration?” post.  Here is some information about each of the occupations you asked about. You will want to do some additional research on each of these career fields as there are a number of occupational paths that can be followed in each. You will also want to make sure that your interests, skills and other personal attributes align with the path you eventually choose. (Check out our Getting to Know You series which explores various aspects of self-assessment, an important, but often neglected step of career decision making.)

Environmental Health

According to ExploreHealthCareers.org, environmental health professionals work to improve public health by identifying, tracking and addressing environmental risk factors.  Most environmental health professionals specialize in a particular area, such as: Reducing air, water, soil, noise or radiation pollution; protecting our food supply; improving safety in schools, public areas and the workplace; ensuring safe living conditions in housing; promoting public health with a focus on environmental hazards.   Jobs are available in government health agencies at the local, state and national levels, private industry, academic institutions, and international health agencies.
Salaries can range quite a lot, depending on the type of work that you would be doing, your educational background, credential and experience level: $44,550 – $143,700 (source)
Education options will tend to be found in the schools of Public Health within a university. For more information, see the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH). (more…)

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Healthcare management and administration

What is the Difference Between Healthcare Management and Healthcare Administration?

Guest author: Kevin Hopkins

The field of healthcare is growing by leaps and bounds, and the healthcare industry is estimated to contribute around six million new jobs to the workforce over the next decade. This represents a nearly 30 percent growth in jobs from the healthcare field alone. There are many different career paths that a student can take, whether your interest ultimately lies in healthcare administration jobs, healthcare management jobs, or some other facet of the medical and healthcare field. A great place to start can be earning a healthcare administration or healthcare management degree online or offline, which can prepare you to climb to the heights of your chosen career path, regardless of where you may choose to specialize or focus your efforts once you graduate.

However, because some terminology used in healthcare can sound surprisingly similar, including terms such as “administration” and “management,” it can be helpful as well to learn before you enroll in an advanced degree program what the differences are between these terms so you are sure you focus your education towards the correct area.

The Role of Education
Education is one of the major differences between the fields of healthcare management and healthcare administration. Healthcare management professionals are most likely to have an educational background that matches their career, whether that may be management of medical staff, informatics and information technology, oncology research studies, or another area. Healthcare administration professionals, on the other hand, are likely to start out in a more business-related field with an advanced degree to match, such as finance, business management, accounting, marketing, or operations. This also speaks directly to the difference in job description between healthcare managers and administrators.

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