Reflection on Learning

According to Vogenberg and Santilli (2018), financial management is important in the healthcare industry since it helps healthcare institutions to offer high-quality services to their patients without going bankrupt. My current practice setting, Sanitas Medical Center in Miami, has a financial department to deal with the institution's financial issues. Like other healthcare organizations, Sanitas Medical Center faces various financial issues that threaten its operations and ability to attain its vision and mission. A major financial challenge in my current practice setting is the practice of cost-cutting. The institution is constantly facing financial pressures from increasing competition, dwindling reimbursement, and deteriorating payer mix, among others. The institution has to take up cost-cutting measures to stay profitable. However, this has a major impact on the quality of care given to patients with regards to factors like purchasing the latest healthcare technologies and hiring and retaining the best talent in the market.

There is one strategy I can employ as a DNP-prepared nurse to resolve this financial challenge. For starters, I have to be in a management or administrative position so that I can influence policy decisions in the institution. Such a position will allow me to revisit staffing plans to eliminate redundant positions and reassign highly qualified staff. This is vital since staffing takes up a huge portion of the revenue made by healthcare institutions (Akinleye et al., 2019). This strategy will ensure the institution retains staff that is crucial to the patients’ wellbeing but eliminates positions that have no bearing on patient care. Finally, as a DNP-prepared nurse, there are steps I can take to decrease expenses and improve the revenue of the medical facility. For example, I can promote the standardization of patient care procedures, this strategy will minimize waste that is propagated through the use of things like hand sanitizers, gauzes, and syringes to conduct unnecessary procedures.

References

Akinleye, D. D., McNutt, L. A., Lazariu, V., & McLaughlin, C. C. (2019). Correlation between hospital finances and quality and safety of patient care. PLoS One, 14(8), e0219124.

Vogenberg, F. R., & Santilli, J. (2018). Healthcare trends for 2018. American Health & Drug Benefits, 11(1), 48.