For Your Benefit: Financial knowledge helps career advancement

In the competitive health care arena, people who have financial acumen stand a better chance of being promoted into management.

"It is crucial to have a strong financial skill set in health care today," said Robin Singleton, FAAHC, FACHE, executive vice president in the Atlanta office of DHR International. "From understanding today's complex reimbursement environment to being able to predict revenue flow, health care executives can no longer depend on staff to carry the lion's share of knowledge in the financial arena. They must be versed in all aspects of finances to move ahead."

Singleton, a member of the firm's Health Care and Life Sciences Practice Group, said that hospitals — whether they are for-profit or nonprofit — are challenged to balance the delivery of quality care with sound management and financial practices. The entire management team must be focused on the bottom line.

For health care leaders, knowing the mere financial basics is no longer enough.

"A good hospital manager knows how his or her own department fits into the overall financial structure of the organization," she said. "They will know if their department is a revenue-generator or [whether] it requires more spending than income.

"How are various departments within the hospital related, in terms of income and expenses? How does each department affect the financial bottom line? And, most importantly, how are finances linked to the delivery of patient care?"

Nurses and allied health professionals who want to move into administration have options for gaining financial knowledge from their professional organizations and from within their institutions.

"Some health care institutions have begun to expose their midlevel management personnel to financial information as part of goal-setting, visioning and evaluation," Singleton said. "Supervisors who have split responsibilities between clinical service and management will serve themselves well by delving deeper into operational methodologies, asking questions and even seeking out someone as a mentor."

While professional organizations offer courses in basic health care finance, these may not be comprehensive enough to provide the type of knowledge that's become a prerequisite to career advancement. If you have an eye on moving into administration and management, it's wise to investigate MBA programs at area colleges and universities. While these programs teach general financial principles, your experience in the field should help you relate the business courses to management in health care.