Dan Heckathorne: Healthcare CFOs need a guiding philosophy and a mantra
What are the qualities that make a successful healthcare CFO? Is it leadership skills? Financial acumen? General management skills? Teaching and/or mentoring skills? A commitment to continued learning to maintain or acquire new skills? Answers vary. But for Dan Heckathorne, CFO of San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital (SGMH) in Banning, California, success in the CFO role…
A clinical background can give a hospital CFO greater financial acumen
Stephen “Jan” Grigsby, FHFMA, MHA, vice president and CFO at Springhill Medical Center (SMC) in Mobile Alabama, is one of those rare senior finance executives who came to his position from a clinical background. And as his experience shows, such finance leaders are likely to have valuable lessons and perspectives to share with their peers…
Healthcare CFOs can benefit from also being strong financial analysts
Starting out in healthcare as a financial analyst is a somewhat unusual place to embark on the career path to becoming CFO of large academic medical center (AMC). But that’s the path that Wendy Fielding, MBA, a 30-year member of HFMA, took on her journey to becoming CFO and system vice president of finance at…
Wendy Fielding: Healthcare CFOs can benefit from having a financial analyst’s perspective
Wendy Fielding, MBA, a 30-year member of HFMA, and CFO and system vice president of finance at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon, New Hampshire, values the lessons she learned from her early experience as a financial analyst in healthcare. And she applies those lessons learned as she helps her organization today realize its commitment to value-based care and improving access to care for its patients.
Terri Chinn: For hospital CFOs, success comes from understanding payer expectations
Terri Chinn, CPA, a 37-year member of HFMA, and vice president, finance, at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado, suggests success for her organization comes from its ability promote health in its service area. She has applied her lessons learned as a leader of both payer and provider organizations to financially manage a clinically integrated network, called Monument Health, with the purpose of improving quality and access while reducing cost for its beneficiaries.
Physicians and finance: Managing the differences is critical to building clinical value
To work together effectively, finance and clinical leaders must not only understand but also value and acknowledge the benefits to be gained from their different perspectives on what constitutes success.
Effective healthcare finance leaders understand more than just finance
Laurence Appel, CPA, FHFMA, and the CFO of University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System — and a 37-year member of HFMA — says it is important for finance leaders to be well-versed in the clinical aspects of the business and its responsibility to meet the community’s healthcare and social needs.
Hospital success requires a CEoH focus says 27-year HFMA member
Erik Thorsen, CPA, MBA, a 27-year member of HFMA, says successful leadership in healthcare finance requires a focus on the CEoH “triple aim” of patient access, equity and social determinants of health.
Voice of Experience: Health system success requires focus on cost-effectiveness, says long-time HFMA member
Edward M. Prunchunas, a 47-year HFMA member, shares his insights and observations about the transformation of the U.S. healthcare system over the years and what are the essential leadership components for achieving success as he prepares to retire as executive vice president of finance, treasurer and CFO of Cedars-Sinai Health System.