Working at a hospital in the USA?

June 23, 2024 4:23 AM

What's a decent job (meaning around $20) entry level job or semi-entry level job at a hospital?

My background involves marketing/design/web, with managerial experience, but am completely burnt out from marketing and designin. I may need to restart my career. What sort of job would suggest for getting my foot in the door at a hospital? There are regular job fairs at local hospital, which include non-nurse/doctor options .

Am 48, an older worker, so I have experience and have been in corporate environments.

posted by clocksock to Work & Money (15 answers total)

I think you probably have to share your region or metro area in order to get an idea of what different jobs pay. Where I am (Boston area) almost any job in a hospital is going to pay you $20/hr or more, including janitor, patient transporter, etc. But idk, those jobs could be paying $10/hr where you are.

Are you thinking of going into a health profession or are you interested in office/support jobs in a hospital setting?
posted by mskyle at 4:55 AM on June 23 [3 favorites]

Can depend on your local minimum wage. Where I am, data entry positions, anything from scribe in the ED to trauma or oncology database registrar, pay above $20. In smaller hospitals training is usually on the job. Registrars can be hybrid or remote in many places.

If you don't mind taking a semester retraining and want to do patient facing work, EMT Basic will get you a patient care tech job many places. ED pay scales typically higher than the rest of the hospital for comparable positions. Monitor tech may not require EMT Basic in some areas.
posted by Ardnamurchan at 5:00 AM on June 23

For reference: in Western Massachusetts, two years ago Cooley Dickinson (part of the Mass General Brigham system) was starting people at $17.50/hr for admin/patient service rep work, and I was told this was totally non-negotiable. At the time I believe the living wage calculator for the area was $17.49/hr for 1 adult with zero children, so perhaps the wage was chosen intentionally. (The living wage calculator now says $22.92/hr.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 5:39 AM on June 23

This is one of those questions that make me ask "Why is he asking us? There is someone whose job it is to give the exactly correct answer." Also, any hospital doing job fairs probably has all the openings listed on their website.

As noted above, there quite a few jobs that require some training, but nothing as long as an associates. Look through the course offerings at your local community college, if you have one to see what they offer.

The website of my local hospital has openings for transporters, for receptionist /schedulers that might fall in the range you are looking for. OTOH, there is also an opening for Sleep Center Manager. Now the sleep center has only a few patients each day and few employees. How hard can it be?
posted by SemiSalt at 5:40 AM on June 23

Best answer: Unit clerk! You get to work on the unit, get to know the staff, and basically keep everything running smoothly. Answering phones, creating and breaking down charts, ordering supplies/maintaining inventory, requesting transport for patients...those are just a few of the things you'd be doing, but you basically are the go-to person for admin stuff for everyone working on the unit. It's a great (and relatively low stress) way to get a feel for the different types of jobs available at a hospital and since you will interact with so many different people, it can be an excellent networking opportunity
posted by bahama mama at 6:30 AM on June 23 [7 favorites]

If you are interested in something patient-facing, hospitals are always looking for “sitters” whose job it is to literally sit with patients and keep them safe. Clerk work may also be an option. Unit clerks or working admissions desks are what I think of for the kind of role you may be interested in.
posted by honeybee413 at 6:32 AM on June 23

It sounds like you are probably interested in office/back office work. However, if you are interrelated in patient care I’ve heard that training to be a phlebotomist does not take too long and the work is in high demand.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:32 AM on June 23

There are also advocacy/guest relation roles. Some titles may include patient advocate, patient and guest experience. These are roles that help navigate complaints and confusion about hospital care. They are patient facing but it's not quite the volume of work of being a unit clerk and also the paperwork and communication requirements are going be vastly different.

Sometimes there can be some interesting grant roles that are doing very specific things that need people to help manage the grant so those are more temporary positions that can get your for in the door depending on the hospital.

There are entry level it jobs abound in hospitals for help desk and various computer equipment problems.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:48 AM on June 23

To see what's out there, you can go to the job listings of whatever hospital you're thinking of and poke around. For example, here are job listings for a hospital in Seattle. Materials Handlers don't require a ton of experience. Medical Assistants require a certificate. Dietary Unit Aides require a food handler's card. Patient Services Specialists require office experience. (Most of these jobs are union, sought after, and difficult to get.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:46 AM on June 23

the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook for US healthcare may also help: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm
posted by HearHere at 8:05 AM on June 23

Best answer: If you do not want to be patient-facing, and do office/admin type work, look into credentialing and/or provider relations, as these often have entry level type positions open and do not require much in the way of college degrees. For likelihood of better benefits, look into universities that run hospitals. For likelihood of better benefits check out job listings at universities that run hospitals.
posted by toastyk at 9:06 AM on June 23

Best answer: (Most of these jobs are union, sought after, and difficult to get.)

Very true in any state with a strong nurses union. Admit desk and unit clerk are very competitive. ED registrar is probably the easiest to get because they start out working graveyard and no-one wants that job for long so once people can get a better shift they do.

Hospital bill coding requires a certificate but is mostly remote with flexible hours because it's usually paid based on the number of bills coded. It's also typically contracted to specialist temp agencies so the work is continous.
posted by fiercekitten at 9:12 AM on June 23

Best answer: I work for a hospital handling insurance authorizations. I started right before Covid in office, and have been remote since March 2020. I like that I don't have to deal with patients, but I do a lot of insurance company phone calls and each payor is different.
I have since received a medical coding certification and currently looking for a job in that field. My current job experience and a hospital-sponsored study program helped me pass the licensing test.
posted by greatalleycat at 1:52 PM on June 23

Most basic would be "patient navigator", but the starting pay depends on the city. And it's obviously patient facing, but usually BEFORE they become patients (pre-admission) and their relatives/friends. They basically sits near the door and greet each new arrival, and direct them to registration desk or individual departments as needed... You probably need to know a few different languages (predominant ones used in the hospital), help fill out some paperwork, etc. No medical experience usually needed, but it helps if you've done paperwork in a hospital before, or speak medical jargon, or have a bachelor's degree and willing to learn stuff. You're marketing, so you need to write a resume full of your transferable skills.
posted by kschang at 3:27 PM on June 24

Pay is highly regionally variable but you could consider getting a quick/low cost certification that would allow you to do phlebotomy or monitor tech. Hospital kitchen workers and environmental services workers (housekeeping) are paid a reasonable living wage in unionized settings.
posted by latkes at 10:10 AM on June 25