The nursing home administrators are responsible for managing the daily operation of nursing homes, assisted living facilities or adult day cares. Their roles include supervising the staff working with them, managing the finances, marketing and promoting community outreach. It is also their responsibility to ensure that the care provided in the nursing home is of the highest standard. For this, they are required to have a good knowledge of the legislation, rules, and regulations at the local, state and the federal level. To sum it up, they have huge responsibilities at work and are looked upon by the other staff for guidance. Therefore, education and certification are given a high priority in this field of nursing. Nursing home administrators are required to hold a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree with a specialization in long-term care or any other related field. However, most employers prefer nurses who have completed their masters in health services administration together with an additional course in business management.
What Does A Nursing Home Administrator Do?
Nursing home administrators are responsible for ensuring quality treatment and care to the patients round the clock. They offer assistance and monitor the well being of elderly patients who are not able to care for themselves independently. Nursing homes have different units of staff, divided in a manner so as to provide optimal care to patients and also to address different issues such as injuries, illnesses, disabilities and diseases in separate ways. It becomes the responsibility of the nursing home administrators to ensure that each one of these units is functioning properly. It is one of their main Duties to ensure that the staff standard is maintained at all times and the everyday operations are executed with discipline. They oversee every activity in the nursing home, right from patient care to staff management to financial planning. They should ensure that the residential care offered at the nursing home is highly effective and safe at all times.
Work Environment
The nursing home administrators usually work in environments that are busy and stressful. They regularly deal with problems such as budget concerns, staff absenteeism and ill health of the residents. They are required to work closely with other personnel such as therapists, doctors, community leaders, the families of residents and the residents themselves, on a daily basis. Therefore, they are required to have very effective interpersonal skills so as to efficiently manage the Duties and responsibilities assigned to them. A large part of their work is done in offices, but they may also assist the caregivers in daily care and activities such as dining and social interaction.
Reporting
The nursing home administrators do not work autonomously. They are required to report to their superiors on a timely basis. Depending upon the organizational structure of the facility, the reporting is either done to a regional manager, executive director or a board of directors. Sometimes, they also give direct reporting to the owner of the facility.
Nursing Home Administrator Responsibilities And Duties
Providing long-term care for the elderly can be quite challenging, which is why the nursing home administrators juggle several different responsibilities. They are required to tend to the needs of both the patients as well as those put forward by their families. They manage revenues, plan expenses, purchase new equipment, inventories, and supplies, manage the staff and prepare daily schedules for the care center. Their prime responsibility is to make sure the standards offered at the facility comply with the rules and regulations laid down by the accrediting body.
Listed below are some of their core Duties and responsibilities
- Supervise the nursing staff
- Monitor patient care
- Promote the care facility amongst the public
- Plan budgets
- Undertake effective steps for the control and management of diseases
- Ensure that every staff is up to date with the rules and regulations of the nursing home
- Address the complaints and grievances as put forward by the patients and their families
- Making sure that confidentiality is maintained at all levels
- Coordinate the daily medical care for residents and ensure that everyone received enough attention
- Works towards improving the efficiency of the staff
- Staff recruitment and training
- Holding interviews with the families of the patients who are looking to get admitted into the facility
- Representing their respective facilities at different meetings, especially the investor meetings
- Maintain accurate and up to date reports for all residents living in the facility
- Deciding the wage rates for the employees
- Developing new rules and regulations and revising the existing ones
How To Become A Nursing Home Administrator?
The interested candidates who are looking for a career as nursing home administrators are advised to start with a Bachelor’s degree in areas such as public administration, health services administration and long-term care administration. This will take around 4 years for completion. After the completion of the bachelor’s course, they can appear for the NCLEX – RN, upon clearing which, they receive the license to start practice. This is the minimum nursing home administrator qualification. However, the role of a nursing home administrator could be the one with any responsibilities. Therefore, many employers prefer to have nurses with a master’s degree. The areas covered during the master’s course include aging, gerontology, long-term care, health behavior and administrative practices. Apart from this, the requirement may vary from state to state depending on the legislation.
Nursing Home Administrator Salary
The pay scale for the nursing home administrators is bound to vary from state to state. However, the average salary is expected to be $85,226 per annum in the United States. This would convert to the hourly pay of about $26.26. Then there are other monetary benefits in the field of nursing, namely, insurances, pensions, bonuses, social security, childcare and paid leaves. Taking all these factors into consideration, the total income per year would easily amount to an average of over $124,000. 1
According to the figures released on Jan 27, 2018, it was revealed that the basic salary for the nursing home administrators can lie anywhere in between $52,722 and $119,602. 2 The data for the report was collected by a team of Certified Compensation Professionals who took the survey to thousands of healthcare industries of all sizes, functioning all across the U.S. that had employment for nurses holding the title of a nursing home administrator. The figures for the salary were provided by the employers as well as the employees. However, it should be noted that while the survey was being conducted, factors such as short-term economic fluctuations, local economy, supply and demand mechanics and other such factors that tend to influence the salary was not taken into account. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise if the wages calculated by two different surveys have slight differences.
How Much Do Nursing Home Administrators Make On An Hourly Basis?
According to the most recent survey, the hourly salary for the nursing home administrators was estimated to be around $27. This was according to the report released on Jan 27, 2018, and the wages are likely to vary in between $14 and $50 per hour depending on a number of factors. The report should be reliable given that the survey was conducted by a team of professionals who collected reliable data from more than thousand points all across the United States. 3
Starting Salary
The nursing home administrators who are at the entry level of their career comprise the bottom tenth percentile out of the entire community of nursing home administrators in term of income. Nurses who have just joined the career and those with less than three years of experience are likely to have an average annual salary of $75,939. However, the seniors who have been working in the field for a substantially long period of time can have basic salaries as high as $98,103 per year. 4
Compensation
The salary for the nursing home administrators is seen to increase in a given positive trend. For example, a nursing home administrator at the entry level and with an experience of 1 to 5 years is likely to have an average annual compensation of $76,000. Compensation includes all the extra benefits like the tips, overtime pays and bonuses that he nurses receive on a timely basis. When calculated together with the basic salary, these extra amounts tend to make a huge difference in the total income of a nursing home administrator.
Nursing home administrators who have been serving for a period of 5 to 10 years may have a total compensation of $90,000 per year, while those who have been working for a period of 10 to 20 years can expect to have an average annual compensation of about $93,000. However, the highest amount is received by the nursing home administrators who have been working for more than 20 years. They have average annual compensation as high as $98,000.5
Career Transition
Many nurses working at the nursing home administrators have either been promoted from the lower posts or are looking for a transition into other posts. During all this, the salaries received under different job titles can have a big difference. The Assistant nursing home administrator salary is lower than that of the nursing Home administrators. Many nurses also choose to transition further into the role of Executive Director. However, the average salaries for this post are much lower than the average annual salary for the nursing home administrators.
Payment By State
The salaries for nursing home administrators can vary from state to state mainly depending on the factors like the availability of qualified candidates, local economy and most importantly, the state legislation. Texas, Houston, New York, Los Angeles are some of the highest paying states in the United States. While the average salary for Nursing Home Administrators in Texas is $102,110, while those working in Florida receive an average salary of only $87,577. 7 8
Highest Nursing Home Administrator Salary Paying Locations
| LOCATION | ANNUAL MEAN WAGE |
|---|---|
| New York, NY | $123,000 |
| Los Angeles | $108,500 |
| Houston | $109,000 |
| Philadelphia | $106,000 |
| Atlanta | $99,000 |
| Chicago | $99,000 |
| Fort Worth | $96,000 |
| Dallas | $96,000 |
Job Outlook
Currently, there are about 16,000 long-term care facilities in the United States, serving an elderly population of about 1.4 million. While the country has a large number of aging populations from the baby boom generation, the demand for healthcare services is expected to go up. The increase in the demand for healthcare services is also due to the fact that more people are taking preventive measures which have led to an increase in the life expectancy resulting in a larger number of the adult population. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated that the employment opportunities for the nursing home administrators will go up by as much as 23 percent by the year 2022. This is quite a fast-paced growth as compared to other occupations. It has been estimated that within the given time frame, there will be approximately 73,300 new job opportunities for the nursing home administrators. The candidates with state-approved certification and a master’s degree may find better job opportunities. The area of employment could include nursing homes, retirement housing, residential care facilities, independent living communities, assisted living facilities and hospices.
Conclusion
The occupation of a Nursing Home Administrator can be an inviting one, especially for the candidates looking to offer medical services to the elderly patients or those in their late adulthood. They are high ranking employees within the health industry and only have upper-level roles. They are required to make reports to only the county commissioner and the board of directors. They have the responsibility of coordinating proper treatment and care for the elderly and ensuring a healthy involvement in the social activities. The job can also offer a high level of satisfaction, mainly because it offers them an opportunity to promote both the mental and physical well being of the seniors which is often something people tend to miss out while holding other job roles.
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