Current Trends in Health Care Delivery

Use critical thinking skills and metacognition to: Explain the 10 characteristics of the U.S. healthcare system.Define patient-centered care.Why is the U.S. health care market referred to as “imperfect?”

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Individual Assignment 1: Responsibilities of the Chief Financial Officer
Your Name
Department of Nursing and Allied Health, Norfolk State University
HSM 331-90: Health Financial Management
Dr. Hedieh Sirjani
Date
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Responsibilities of the Chief Financial Officer
In health care organizations, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) measures and reports on
the validity of meeting the business’s objectives. The CFO also measures the effectiveness of
policies and procedures to attain those objectives (Nowicki, 2018). One of the CFO’s primary
goals is to protect the assets of the organization and ensure that the hospital systems are running
most cost-effectively. To achieve the hospital goals, the characteristics and traits of CFOs will be
discussed. Also, the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), conducted a survey in
2015 to identify typical CFO profiles (Nowicki, 2018). Subsequently, the International Journal
of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences published an article that identified
healthcare CFO professional development attributes. This paper aims to identify the
characteristics, traits, and responsibilities of CFOs and their fiduciary duties in healthcare
organizations.
Characteristics and Traits of the CFO
There are some CFOs that oversee the day-to-day administrative operations of healthcare
organizations. They plan and supervise all medical services that include monitoring budgets and
updating health records. Nowicki (2018) believes there are six skills that CFOs must have: 1) the
ability to communicate clearly, 2) provide day-to-day leadership, 3) manage resources and
finances, 4) build coalitions, 5) create a positive organizational culture, and 6) maintain strong
physician relationships.
ACHE Survey of Typical CFO Profiles
The American College of Healthcare Executive (ACHE) conducted a survey that showed
CFO compensation trends of middle managers from 2005 to 2015. There were seven CFO job
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titles that showed a progression of increased salaries. In 2015, the director/manager of managed
care’s largest salary was $134,000 followed by the director/manager of finance at $127,600
(Nowiski, 2018). Today, the nationwide average CFO hospital annual salary is $152,106 (Zip
recruiter, 2020).
CFO Professional Development Attributes
The International Journal of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences published
an article titled “Identifying Healthcare CFO Professional Development Attributes” written by
Rochester, Wilson, Berkshire, & Houlihan (2017). The article identifies the concern of
uncontrolled healthcare expenditures in the United States. The authors also identified fourteen
important attributes for CFO development and success. The top five attributes respectively
ranked: “1) ability to translate financial information into meaningful action, 2) effective
communicator, 3) high integrity, 4) ability to translate financial and performance metrics into
useful measures for operations people, and 5) ability to execute…” (p. 617). The article focused
on the importance of financial leaders having a professional development portfolio.
Conclusion
This paper aimed to identify the characteristics, traits, and responsibilities of CFOs and
their fiduciary duties in healthcare organizations. Research and literature reviews were conducted
for the past five years. Research showed that the healthcare industry would be the most
prominent industry by 2026, employing more than one-third of all jobs in the country with the
projected growth rate exceeding every other sector (BLS, 2016). The characteristics, traits, and
responsibilities of CFOs play an essential role in helping the United States reduce healthcare
costs by improving the CFO professional development portfolio.
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References
Bureau of Labor and Statistics. (2016). Industry employment and output projections to 2024.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2015/article/industry-employment-and-output-projectionsto-2024.htm
Hospital Chief Financial Officer Salary. (2020). https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/HospitalChief-Financial-Officer-Salary.
Nowicki, M. (2018). Introduction to the financial management of healthcare organizations
(7th ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
Rochester, C., Wilson, A., Berkshire, S., & Houlihan, R. (2017). Identifying healthcare CFO
professional development attributes.
https://www.ijires.org/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/IJIRES
_1096_FINAL.pdf