How To Become A Hospital Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a hospital director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Hospital directors have a number of duties that involve the oversight and smooth operations of a hospital.

Hospital directors are doctors, but the role of hospital director in hospital settings extends beyond patient care. As long-term healthcare leaders, their job description includes recruiting and managing physicians, nurses, caregivers, and various non-medical personnel. Along with senior management, they examine and coordinate various practice activities to guarantee the medical quality of the facility. They are also responsible for the training, continuing education, and promoting of subordinate staff. To qualify for the position, applicants will need a medical degree with board certification in a relevant field, along with several years of medical experience. Essential skills include interpersonal, communication, organizational, and leadership.

The average hourly pay for this position is $31.17, which amounts to $64,831 annually. The career is projected to grow substantially in the near future, resulting in various new job opportunities emerging all over the United States.

ScoreHospital DirectorUS Average

Salary

8.3

Avg. Salary $127,268

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.1

Growth Rate 28%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.72%

Asian 7.92%

Black or African American 11.55%

Hispanic or Latino 14.34%

Unknown 4.26%

White 61.20%

Gender

female 53.04%

male 46.96%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress Level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.8

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.9

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a hospital director

Explore hospital director education requirements

Most common hospital director degrees

Bachelor's

59.4 %

Master's

18.5 %

Associate

13.1 %

Start to develop specific hospital director skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	13.48%
Patient Care	10.33%
Oversight	9.63%
Customer Service	9.36%
Customer Satisfaction	8.96%

Complete relevant hospital director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New hospital directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a hospital director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real hospital director resumes.

Research hospital director duties and responsibilities

Insure department is JACHO, CMS & TDH compliant, manage professional staff & department productivity.
Manage the staff, schedule, payroll, problems that arise within hospital, reports, etc.
Interact successfully with regulatory and oversight agencies, which lead to more streamline operations of complex healthcare reimbursement programs.
Develop and maintain capital and FTE budget.

Get hospital director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a hospital director. The most common roles before becoming a hospital director include general manager, director team lead and staff nurse.

Prepare your hospital director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your hospital director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a hospital director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Hospital Director Resume templates

Build a professional Hospital Director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Hospital Director resume.

Apply for hospital director jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a hospital director job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do hospital directors rate their job?

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Hospital Director reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

i want to have more experiences in log supervisor hospital