HFMA VIEWS

Robert Fromberg
Editor in Chief, HFMA

When reading the latest Financing the Future report, Strategies for Financially Distressed Hospitals, I was struck by the central role of communication in the financial success or failure of an organization.

Sometimes it’s an information technology problem. One turnaround story involved a health system that “lost total control of its numbers due to a computer conversion….” The system’s executives “had limited information on where they stood financially because data were very scarce, and if available, were suspect because of the information system problems,” said the CFO.

But just as frequently, inadequate communication “is a leadership issue, not a technology issue,” according to the report. Flip through the report and you’ll see all its tools share one purpose: to communicate about financial performance. But the communication is not just about numbers and their meaning—it’s also about securing trust in the direction of the organization. One health system, for example, suffered from deep distrust between physicians and management. One solution: open communication. The new CEO “gave the physicians his cell and home phone numbers, setting the tone for ongoing partnership discussions.”

Click here to download the report.