Top 7 Healthcare Administration Interview Questions to Ask
When you’re hiring an addition to the senior leadership team, it’s essential to have a set of healthcare administration interview questions to pinpoint the outstanding candidates. Among the many responsibilities of the job, senior management represents the organization, influences company culture, manages financial resources, and plays a vital role in organizational governance.
Building a strong administrative team is vital to the health and wellness of any healthcare organization. After writing a targeted job description and fielding candidates, the interview process will allow you to choose the candidate best suited to your organization’s needs. The following interview questions for healthcare administrators and tips for what to look for in the answers will help you hire the right people.
We’ve also provided a downloadable candidate evaluation form to help you stay organized throughout the interview process.
Essential Healthcare Administrator Interview Questions
Although healthcare administrators work in nursing care facilities, outpatient care centers, and government agencies, their biggest employers are hospitals. The job outlook for these professionals is bright with a much faster-than-average expected growth rate of 28% over the next 10 years. Administrators hold a wide array of job titles, but some examples include:
- Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) — the healthcare sector is the 4th largest employer of CEOs
- Nursing Home Director
- Chief Nursing Officer (CNO)
- Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO)
- Director of Nursing (DON)
- Director of Nursing Education
- Medical and Health Services Manager
The AONE Nurse Executive Competencies define the skills, knowledge, and abilities required of senior management, regardless of the healthcare setting. The core skills required for competency as a healthcare administrator include:
- Communication and relationship management
- Knowledge of the healthcare environment
- Leadership
- Professionalism
- Business skills and principles
By aligning your interview questions with each of these five domains, you’ll be able to assess the competencies of your candidates and select the best fit for your organization. Here are seven senior healthcare administrator interview questions for your next interview that touch on each domain.
1. What leadership theory best matches your style, and why?
This is one of the best healthcare administration interview questions to kick off the interview because it allows the candidate to start with their own basic beliefs. Being able to speak about one’s foundational framework and guiding principles is essential for every influential leader.
What to listen for:
- Specific theories (like transactional, transformational, or servant leadership theories)
- Meaningful self-reflection with deep understanding of guiding values and beliefs
Potential follow-up questions:
- Can you tell me about a mentor (or hero) who influenced your leadership approach?
- Tell me about a time that you experienced exceptional leadership.
2. How would the people who report to you describe your management style?
This question helps you understand what it’s like to work for the candidate. Do they tend to micromanage or delegate responsibilities? How are they perceived by their team? If the responses seem too rosy and glowing, you can follow up with a question like, “What would others say is a weakness of your style?”
What to listen for:
- Honesty and the credibility necessary to promote a healthy company culture
- Self-awareness about how their actions and leadership style are perceived by others
Potential follow-up questions:
- How do you think your leadership style facilitates better interprofessional collaboration?
- Tell me about a time when feedback directed you to change your leadership approach.
3. Describe a time when you led an organization-wide strategic change initiative. How did you work through challenges?
Change is difficult for many organizations. Even those with strong leadership teams and healthy work environments can struggle, which makes this one of the most revealing healthcare administration interview questions. The ability to be flexible, adaptable, and forward-thinking is crucial in the ever-changing world of healthcare. The administrative team plays a key role in embracing new practices and managing change.
What to listen for:
- Fluency with change theory and implementation strategies
- Critical analysis of organizational issues and strong problem-solving skills
Potential follow-up questions:
- What’s leadership’s central role within the change management process?
- How do you influence employees and other healthcare leaders who are resistant to change?
4. How have you used clinical information to understand and solve operational or financial problems?
This question allows you to assess how well the candidate incorporates clinical data into organizational planning and problem solving. Effective leaders use their understanding of the clinical arena to inform financial and strategic management decisions.
What to listen for:
- Seamless integration of clinical perspective into organizational decision-making process
- Savvy business skills that are complemented by practical healthcare knowledge
Potential follow-up questions:
- How do you leverage technology to maximize clinical and financial productivity?
- Walk me through your understanding of current patient care delivery systems. How do you think they could be optimized under your leadership?
5. How do you make sure your facility delivers exceptional, world-class care to its patients?
Satisfactory patient care is no longer good enough. Organizations are competing for exceptional patient satisfaction scores and quality indicators. As healthcare continues to move from a fee-for-service payment model toward value-based care programs, patient outcomes will become drivers for reimbursement.
What to listen for:
- Awareness of top patient safety indicators and goals
- Knowledge of current, evidence-based practice measures that help with risk management
Potential follow-up questions:
- How do you think leadership and administration can help drive better patient outcomes, despite not delivering hands-on care?
- What strategies do you think are key for supporting staff to provide quality care (like professional development opportunities or education support, for example)?
6. How do you promote employee wellness within your teams?
The entire healthcare workforce has been flooded with overwhelming levels of workplace stress, compassion fatigue, and moral injury. Roughly half of all healthcare workers, including nurses, say they struggle with burnout. Nurses face the greatest impact with nearly one-half wanting to leave their jobs. More than ever, it’s crucial for administrative leaders to attend to the needs of their staff’s safety, health, and well-being.
What to listen for:
- Firm action plans with specific examples of stress-reduction and wellness initiatives (such as mindfulness training and mental health support systems)
- Prioritizing the needs of the workforce and recognition of the ways individuals are impacted by clinical work
Potential follow-up questions:
- Tell me about a time when a safe work environment felt jeopardized. How did you help address the issue?
- How do you build trust with your staff especially in situations that are beyond your control, like chronic staff shortages?
7. What’s the most important issue facing professionals in healthcare administration?
Interview questions like this are broad enough for the candidate to select from a range of issues and topics. From healthcare economics and policy to governance structures and staffing shortages, there are unlimited answers to choose from.
What to listen for:
- Insight into the top challenges across healthcare institutions
- Strong analytical skills and nuanced perspectives on broad issues
Potential follow-up questions:
- Tell me about a time you had to get creative to solve an organizational-level issue.
- How do you stay updated on healthcare news and system-wide challenges?
Find Your Next New Hire by Posting on IntelyCare
We’ve explored seven healthcare administration interview questions that can help you build an outstanding leadership team. The first step, however, is attracting quality candidates. Put your job posting in front of more than 1 million healthcare professionals throughout the U.S. today.