DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

MHA@GW Module 3

Healthcare Financial Management

 

Module 3 Key Competencies 

Decision Making: Solving Business Problems and Making Decisions

 

Possesses the ability to utilize decision making processes that leads to the selection of the most optimal course of action from a group of alternatives

 

Financial Management: Financial Management

 

Apply principles of health economics to analyze and interpret organizational and payment issues.

 

Quantitative Skills: Quantitative Analysis

 

Demonstrates the ability to effectively use quantitative tools and methods to collect, organize, arrange, analyze, interpret and evaluate date for decision-making

 

Regulations: Standards and Regulations

 

Demonstrate the ability to understand and apply healthcare regulations including those from governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations

 

Health Care Issues: HealthCare Issues and Trends

 

Assess and evaluate the local, regional and national healthcare issues and trends that impact both payment and delivery of health services

 

Care Issues: Health Care Personnel

 

Demonstrate an understanding of the breadth of healthcare personnel along with demographic, employment and salary implications

  

 

My Development

 

            The capstone project of Module 3 has been the creation of a Proforma analysis for a proposed budget of an Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC). Each weekly stage of completing the course project has involved the successful synthesis of knowledge from financial accounting, the weekly course content, and Excel.

            Prior to Module 3, my knowledge and skills in Excel were very limited. I had never used Excel for perform mathematical formula calculations. I certainly did nothing as complex as linking cells together that were located throughout a spreadsheet. Using Excel represented the most significant challenge to my success in this course. For me to be successful in this course, I knew that I had to prepare myself to be able to complete work through the Excel application.

            The most useful tool that prepared me to successfully confront my Excel challenge was the resource that the MHA program at GWU made available to us students: Lynda.com. Prior to the start of Module 3, I completed every recommended tutorial in the Excel Essential Training on the Lynda.com site. I also completed practice Excel tutorial spreadsheets on my own. Lastly, I supplemented the Lynda.com tutorials with additional YouTube videos posted by various educators and finance professionals. I was surprised at the extent of which these modes of preparation helped me to successfully complete all of the course content that utilized Excel! Currently, I feel much more confident in my Excel skills then before taking this course.

            One of the specific portions the ASC Proforma project that I found to be most useful was working on the Personnel Expenses. This portion of the assignment really demonstrated to me the intricate relationships between projected ASC case volumes, full-time equivalents (FTEs), non-productive time (NPT), annual salary, annual benefits, operating room (OR) beds, and recovery room (RR) beds. For me, I felt that I gained valuable knowledge about how each of these “LEGO” pieces would snap together to construct the budget for an organization.

            The group dynamics for Group C mostly centered around working together to complete the weekly group worksheet deliverable. The members of our group shared the concern that cooperation on the course Proforma project may unintentionally culminate in weekly deliverables that would have too much similarity; thereby erroneously suggesting an inappropriate level of collaboration on our individual course deliverable. Due to this concern, the members of our group focused our weekly meetings on completing the worksheet assignments. We learned one another’s temperament, and I felt that each member of the group contributed to the successful completion of each week’s deliverable.

            In conclusion, I believe that the weekly construction of each portion of the ASC Proforma capstone project for Module 3 has increased my knowledge and competency to be able to manage the financial components of a health care center or service line.   

 



 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.