Ice Breakers: reducing the tension between finance and nursing

oramar · Oct 8, 2007

UGH to them, they will never get me liking them. As far as I am concerned people in finance are responsible for deaths and injuries of many patients due to penny pinching. That goes double for their managment lackys.

pickledpepperRN · Oct 10, 2007

Sorry but the fact is that the product of hospitals is nursing care.

Executives whose yearly pay is more than a nurse at their facilities will be paid in a lifetime are not fooling me when they claim to be trying to keep from going bankrupt.

It is their job to ensure to know what it takes to run a hospital.

Hospital CEOs join the $1m club

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/08/31/hospital_ceos_join_the_1m_club/

More on hospital executive pay: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2004-09-29-nonprofit-salaries_x.htm

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Oct 11, 2007

I happen to report to our CFO. Learned a lot about finances from him. Minute I open my mouth about clinical info, healthcare insurance issues, his eyes glaze off and goes huh, slow down, explain simple terms. Comments that nurses are a dime a dozen retracted after my retort that CFO's are a dime a dozen too this days.

We each have our strengths and weaknesses, learning to talk to each other to see how nursing affects financials is important.

CFO recently made up P+L (Profit and loss) budget form for each of our branch managers to be able to play with and change #'s for homecare variables we track that affect bottom line: # admissions, # recerts, # therapy visits projected, # patients with less than 5 visits, % referrals converted to homecare admissions etc. He listed impact change in # would affect bottom line.

At our clinical managers meeting yesterday, several mgrs stated couldn't believe how few # changes would significantly impact $$$ and profit/loss to agency. Each branch can now decide what # target they want for each indicator.

Cl Mgrs complained didn't have enough staff to be able to admit patients to homecare timely. Finance Dept said they had enough staff--I told em they were looking at wrong #'s. So CFO devised formula to base # staff on:

Referrals accepted month / FTE Staff minus staff in training, on medical leave or leaving homecare (rare) = # actual staff needed per branch per discipline

Since that occurred, found 2 branches UNDER by 2-3 FTE positions. HR and Finance now run this report every 2 weeks to make sure adequate staff hired.

This is an example how working cooperatively and understanding financial picture can help manage facilities $$$ wisely AND be able to generate more business too!

pickledpepperRN · Oct 11, 2007

Patients and nurses are blessed that you were able to teach the CFO and that he or she was willing to learn.