Understanding the CEO’s Role in Managing Finances in Acute Care and Behavioral Health Hospitals
A CEO is the highest-ranking executive manager in a company. They are responsible for a company’s strategic direction and oversee other executive leaders, such as presidents, vice presidents, and directors, who help enact their policies.
They must be able to represent the firm in front of the general public, investors, press, and lawmakers. They also deal with financial matters like budgeting, reporting, and forecasting.
Budgeting
A hospital CEO is expected to juggle a variety of tasks. They must exhibit business acumen, healthcare expertise, and forward-thinking. They also must communicate with various stakeholders, other hospital executives, and the public.
Hospitals often face revenue-related concerns. Other major revenue-related issues include inadequate funding from state and federal agencies and declining enrollment in private insurance plans.
Sam Lee Prospect Medical develops a strong budgeting strategy to manage these issues. This process involves identifying the organization’s goals, such as cost savings or exploring new market segments. This will then guide the preparation of a budget to ensure these objectives are met within the available resources. The budget will also predict future trends and changes impacting the facility’s bottom line.
Financial Reporting
Financial reporting records and discloses a company’s business activities to stakeholders, including investors, creditors, and regulatory institutions. This information is used for tax return documentation, financial analysis, strategic planning, and capital acquisition decisions.
Several studies have suggested that hospital financial health and the quality of patient care may be associated, but results have been equivocal due to poor predictive validity. Hospital CEOs must prioritize initiatives to stabilize finances with margins still at razor-thin, near-zero levels.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning involves looking at your organization’s internal and external environment. Analyzing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats would be best. You also need to know what other organizations are doing and what societal expectations might be.
It is essential to involve everyone in the strategic planning process. This will help ensure all your employees are on the same page and working toward the same goals. Hiring an outside facilitator to guide the process is also a good idea. This person can be a coach and “strategic conscience” for the company.
Strategic plans should be incorporated into long-range resource forecasts and annual budgets. This will ensure the strategic plan’s goals align with the organization’s overall financial objectives. It is crucial to share the strategic plan with all stakeholders, including employees and patients. This will help build buy-in and ensure that all of the organization’s resources are being used to support the plan’s goals.
Forecasting
Predicting future trends and market changes is a vital component of any business. Whether it’s the number of raw materials needed to manufacture a new product or the correct number of staff members in each department, forecasting provides accurate extrapolations that help managers create realistic and helpful company plans.
In the case of healthcare, this means predicting capacity and patient flow.
Financially stable hospitals can maintain reliable systems and provide resources for quality improvement, resulting in better medical and surgical care. This finding is robust and remains significant after controlling for hospital characteristics, including teaching status, bed count, and percentage of Medicare cases.
