Hospital CFO's Should Seek Nurses' Input

According to healthcare experts at the recent HFMA annual conference, nurses are a key part of a hospital's revenue cycle and their input should be sought after from hospital CFO's.

Nurse input is especially beneficial during the development of organizational business plans experts say. "You have to involve all parties in strategic financial planning," said Susan Sanders, associate vice president for patient services at QHR Consulting. "Sharing information between the nursing staff and finance can be a big improvement in the creation of annual budgets and business plans."

Nurses are also great resources for market research. They can be a great help in developing new product lines or offering new services as they often know vendors as well as clinical colleagues in other hospitals.

Hospital CFO's should be sure that nursing managers understand the impact of overall hospital profitability. They should be aware of the importance of a hospital's liquidity position.

The experts say that the nursing and finance departments need to work together on nurse retention as well.