Also called: Social Services Director
Leads the team of social workers and case managers in a hospital or health system.
Starts with a census review of every patient who might have trouble going home safely. Spends the afternoon on staffing, budgets, and meetings with nursing and physicians, and steps in personally on the toughest cases, like a patient with no home to go to.
Large hospital systems pay the most.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 11 years after high school. MSW and clinical license, plus 5-10 years of experience in healthcare social work.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school, On-the-job training. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Social Work, Health Administration.
Growing faster than average (about 6% over 10 years).
Low risk for 10 years. AI flags patients at risk of unsafe discharge; staffing, budgets and the hardest family cases stay human.
Classes: AP Psychology, Health science CTE, Speech.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-9151.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.