The control of healthcare cost, while maintaining quality, continues to be one of the primary challenges for today's healthcare executive.  I think most will agree that IT plays a key role in overcoming these challenges.  Through IT we can practice evidence based medicine, improve patient safety and ultimately reduce overall costs.  With that being said, I still find it hard to believe that many organizations are still a long way away from implementing an EMR.  I know that a lot of the problems have to do with the cost constraints associated with EMRs but if we are ever going to make any significant progress in reducing healthcare costs, I think this is the area that we should be focusing on.

Thoughts?

As a strategic planning in my organization, I tend to hear the financial ratios often.   For the BOG exam, we will be expected to calculate the ratios - or are we expected to know the relationships and whether they are "directionally" correct ? 

This makes me a little nervous if we have to know (memorize) all of the ratios along with all of the other information.

The Wagner Act, otherwise known as the National Labor Relations Act, provides the basic framework within which labor union and management interact in the United States. The law was passed in 1935. It guarantees workers' basic right to organize. It created the National Labor Relations Board to oversee union-management relations. It provided for an election process for unionization efforts in U.S. businesses. There is a notation that it prohibited five major "unfair labor practices" on the part of U.S. employers.  Does anyone know what these five practices are/were?

As health care administrators we are hearing more and more often how important it is to understand the financials of our organizations.  I found it interesting that during this year's Congress when one of the presenters in an Advance Finance session asked a room of nearly 300 how many of them knew their cost of doing business, less than 5 percent of the room raised their hand.

In the current environment I can understand the need to have a good understanding of finance related issues, but to what degree should a non CFO administrator get involved in the organization's finances?  How much do you need to know and how much should you leave on those individuals that you pay to be concerned with the money?

I'm sure the answer is very dependent on the level of trust you have with the controllers, but this issue really concerns me and has prompted some serious research into health care financial management.