The Battle for CFOs

It seems the only way for people to move up the career ladder in the hospital industry is to move from hospital to hospital. It is said that the average CFO tenure is approximately 3 years.

McKinsey released a report nearly 10 years ago stating, "the most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent: smart, sophisticated businesspeople who are technologically literate, globally astute, and operationally agile. And even as the demand for talent goes up, the supply of it will be going down."

From the standpoint of risk identification and mitigation, this has to be on the top of every board's radar. People take time to gain the necessary experience to identify risks that the hospital is facing. However, if CFO's are turning over every three years there is no time to become familiar with the risks of the hospital. In coming posts we will explore strategies to keep the institutional knowledge in your hospital for a long time.

Assorted Links

1. Outsourcing ER dispatchers

2. Health Policy Blogging is being tracked by Kaiser

3. Washington still can't make sense of healthcare IT

Waste

Interesting article in the Health Affairs Blog.

Putting the I in IT

Information technology is the thorn in every hospital managers side. Hospitals spend enormous amounts of capital providing physicians with the latest technology to diagnose and treat patients. IT initiatives need to be evaluated by hospital management to make sure they align with the organizations overall goals and objectives.

Questions you should be asking about your IT strategy are:

- Is the IT infrastructure able to meet business needs?
- How is IT performance measured?
- How are IT investment decisions proposed, shared, and delivered?
- How is IT performance accountability divided between the organization and IT department?
- Does IT staff need to understand strategic business goals and objectives?
- Do employees recognize, define, and communicate IT needs effectively?

By answering these questions and then working with your CIO, your organization will be able to identify the most relevant business areas.