Hospital/healthcare financial recovery under COVID-19: Financial metrics that improve understanding and action
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the limits of financial executives’ dedication, skill, patience and ingenuity. For many, the first wave of the pandemic has overwhelmed available resources, while others may be battening down the financial hatches for a second (or third) wave. In this maelstrom of uncertainty, it is important for healthcare organisations to have a clear-eyed view of their current financial situation and determine a clear path forward. What complicates matters is that each organisation has its own unique needs, history and circumstance to consider. There are plethoras of unique circumstances that create small or large differences between every hospital in the country that the article will discuss. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to financial recovery: what works for one organisation may not work for another. The key to finding the best approach is a clear and data-driven understanding of each organisation’s unique circumstances. This paper will examine the specific financial metrics healthcare financial leaders should monitor during COVID-19 that provide actionable advice, on the basis of Lumina’s depth of expertise, on precisely how healthcare organisations can use these metrics to chart their own customised path to financial recovery.
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Author's Biography
Steven Berger specialises in teaching and consulting with healthcare organisations on financial and general management strategies. Steven is a results-driven professional with more than 40 years of healthcare financial management experience, including more than 20 years of serving as a hospital financial administrator and over 22 years teaching financial and executive leaders. Steven served as the financial executive for several hospitals in Missouri, Illinois, New York and New Jersey and gained extensive knowledge of healthcare financial management from a provider’s point of view. He has also formed an executive training and consulting firm and a healthcare financial management software solution and training company. Steven is a well-respected author, having written four peer-reviewed books on healthcare finance and nonprofit management, including Fundamentals of Healthcare Financial Management — a practical resource that explains the theories and relationships that guide financial decisions in healthcare. He has written numerous magazine articles, including three award-winning contributions on technology, cost management and training. Steven has been active with the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), serving on the National Board of Examiners as the Regional Executive of Region 7 and as President of the First Illinois chapter. His unique combination of healthcare and finance experience allows Steven to deliver high-level and practical consulting services as well as a variety of essential healthcare finance-related classes to organisations and associations such as HFMA and American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). These classes offer attendees a unique perspective on labour and supply chain management, metrics management and advanced healthcare financial management strategies that participants can immediately implement in their organisations.
Citation
Berger, Steven (2021, March 1). Hospital/healthcare financial recovery under COVID-19: Financial metrics that improve understanding and action. In the Management in Healthcare: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 5, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.69554/SZUF4475.
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