Hospital CFOs can prepare for reform.

• Author: Fingado, J.P.
• Position: OPERATIONS

Across the United States, chief financial officers in hospitals are operating under the tightest budgets in years with hospitals facing even tougher conditions as health-care reform is expected to reduce Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and generate 32 million new patients. As health reform provides rewards and penalties based on quality of care, hospitals must meet quality metrics to protect valuable reimbursements.

While the industry undergoes sweeping changes, hospital CFOs must maximize operations and quickly become more cost-efficient to remain fiscally strong and competitive. By focusing on affordable technological solutions to optimize talent, they can accomplish this, while increasing the quality of care and maximizing reimbursements.

An integral part of the solution is the nursing staff responsible for providing the majority of direct care to patients, so hospitals must find innovative and cost-effective ways to both manage the talent and address an anticipated nursing shortage.

Among the best practices used by forward-thinking CFOs are:

* Controlling Overtime: More than 60 percent of hospitals' operating costs can be attributed to labor and studies show that nurses are three times more likely to make mistakes when...