DHSc Degree

Health Services Manager: The Career and the Path

Running a clinical department, a practice, a service line or a whole facility: budgets, staffing, quality and compliance.

Last updated

Median
$123,860
Middle half
$94,700–$166,100
Top 10%
$224,340
Employed
597,080
Two health professionals in scrubs and a lab coat conferring over a folder at a hospital reception desk
Most of this job is coordination: budgets, staffing, quality and compliance across a department or a service line. Photograph by RDNE Stock project

What Does a Health Services Manager Do?

Running a clinical department, a practice, a service line or a whole facility: budgets, staffing, quality and compliance.

This is the single most common destination the DHSc programs themselves point at, and it is a large occupation with a wide pay spread. A doctorate is not required to enter it. What the degree tends to do is make you a credible candidate for the senior end of it, where postings start listing an advanced degree.

How Much Does a Health Services Manager Make?

The national median is $123,860. The middle half of the occupation earns between $94,700 and $166,100, and the published range runs from $73,390 to $224,340. Full state-by-state figures are on the health services manager salary page.

Job Outlook for Medical and Health Services Managers

The Department of Labor projects 7% or higher growth for this occupation over 2024 to 2034, which it labels much faster than average, against 62,100 projected openings across the period. Openings come from people leaving the occupation as well as from new posts, so that second figure describes your odds of finding a job better than the growth rate does.

That is the top band on the Department of Labor scale, and it is not the norm among the careers a DHSc points at. One of the four on this site is projected to grow at one to two percent.

Pay runs from $73,390 at the tenth percentile to $224,340 at the ninetieth, with a median of $123,860. The full spread and pay in every state sit on the salary page.

Where Medical and Health Services Managers Work

The eight states holding the most of these jobs, out of 597,080 nationally. This is not the same list as the eight that pay best.

StateEmployedMedian
California 75,090 $141,480
Texas 58,420 $114,150
Florida 42,700 $120,360
New York 33,200 $164,120
Pennsylvania 30,480 $103,670
Ohio 24,390 $106,140
Illinois 22,460 $117,850
Massachusetts 17,600 $134,360

How a DHSc Degree Fits a Health Services Manager Career

Every program on our ranked list is built for people already working in health care, so the realistic sequence is not degree then job. It is job, then degree alongside it, then the move. That is why almost all of these programs are online and part-time, and why their published timelines already assume you are employed throughout.

Before committing, do the check in our guide to whether a DHSc is worth it: find three current postings for this role and see whether they require a doctorate, prefer one, or never mention it. That answer is worth more than any ranking.

DHSc Concentrations That Point at This Career

These programs publish a concentration whose own name points at this kind of work. The track you pick at entry usually decides what your applied project is about, so choose on the track rather than on the program's headline.

Frequently Asked Questions About Becoming a Health Services Manager

Do you need a doctorate to become a health services manager?
No. This occupation is entered with a bachelor's or master's degree far more often than with a doctorate. A DHSc tends to matter at the senior end, where postings begin listing an advanced degree.
What does a health services manager earn?
A median of $123,860, with the middle half between $94,700 and $166,100, and the full range running from $73,390 to $224,340 across 597,080 jobs. Full detail including pay by state is on the salary page.
Which DHSc programs suit this career?
All 24 programs on this site point at leadership and teaching roles, so the better question is structure rather than specialism. If you want the research training, choose one of the programs that ends in a dissertation. If you want the credential and the leadership coursework, the applied-project programs are the honest fit.

Careers Related to Health Services Manager

Sources for Health Services Manager Career Data

Wage and employment projection figures on this page come from the Department of Labor. Anything about accreditation or the degree itself is sourced separately.