HSA-5175 Healthcare Finance Reflection on Chapters 1 & 2

This report is a reflection on healthcare finance, focusing on the concepts presented in Chapters 1 and 2. The student provides a brief overview of financial management's history and its relevance to the healthcare sector, emphasizing the importance of planning, organizing, and controlling resources to ensure sustainability. The report also discusses the four basic elements of financial management: original records, information systems, accounting systems, and reporting systems, highlighting their interconnectedness. Furthermore, the student reflects on the Institute of Management Accountants' ethical principles, underlining the significance of honesty, fairness, objectivity, and responsibility in healthcare financial management. The reflection highlights the importance of these principles in decision-making and resource management, ultimately enhancing competence and addressing financial issues within healthcare organizations. The assignment concludes by emphasizing the universal applicability of financial management knowledge across all organizations, regardless of their profit orientation, and its significance for healthcare managers in planning, managing, and making business decisions.

Running head: HEALTHCARE FINANCE REFLECTION
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Healthcare Finance Reflection
Student’s Name
University

HEALTHCARE FINANCE REFLECTION
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Healthcare Finance Reflection
Healthcare finance focusses on assisting the patients and healthcare beneficiaries to
manage medical expenses in the organization for short term and long term benefits. This is based
on borrowing from the field of management where resources are planned and organized in a way
that increases access to healthcare. Chapter one of Baker & Baker (2015) I focused on defining
the concept of healthcare finance by looking at the history of finance and how it relates to the
healthcare sector. In Chapter two of the book I focussed on the important elements of financial
management that healthcare care managers need to understand. The overall aim of these two
chapters is to provide an overview of the subject and offer a brief of the knowledge and skills
required for practitioners in this field.
In Delkhosh & Mousavi (2016) I read that the concept of financial management in
healthcare is similar to what happens in other management industries since it entails linking the
financial resources, the clinical environment and the process of managing healthcare as a three
view that is similar to other industries. What I have learned from this chapter is the fact that the
healthcare sector like any other industry requires management principles and concepts to run the
industry. Just like other industries and management areas, I believe the healthcare sector also
requires the management elements of planning, controlling, organizing, directing and decision
making. This means that the resources within the sector have to be managed to ensure that
services are delivered to the clients who are patients while at the same time sustain the
organization. Whether proprietary of non-profit, all these healthcare organizations require
resources that have to keep the system running and at the same time sustain the continued
existence of the organization. Thus like other organizations, the healthcare sector works in the
same way by managing the existing resources to achieve sustainability.

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In the second chapter, my focus of the reading was understanding four basic elements of
management which are the use of original records, information systems, accounting system, and
reporting system. These four elements can be understood from the systems theory perspective
where there are different element systems in the organization that interact with each other to
keep the system operational (Eldenburg, Krishnan, & Krishnan, 2017). As a finance manager I
keep records to monitor the progress of the organization, evidence must be gathered from
different areas to assist in decision making, records have to be kept to account for all the
processes that take place in the organization and at the same time there must be a reporting
system for documenting the way activities are done in the organization.
Thus what I have learned from chapter two is the fact that like any other organizations,
the healthcare sector has the same elements of management and the healthcare managers must
understand the relationship between these elements in achieving the intended requirements of the
organization. Therefore, healthcare administrators need to understand the different elements that
exist in the organization and how they relate to each other (Eldenburg, Krishnan, & Krishnan,
2017). This reading has improved my healthcare management knowledge and made me
understand that indeed managing the organizations in this sector requires the same abilities and
entails making the same decisions as what other managers do.
The Institute of Management Accountants provides a statement of ethical professional
practice that financial need to follow when dealing with financial issues within their
organization. This is through the following principles: Honesty, Fairness, Objectivity, and
Responsibility and at the same time the standards of competence, confidentiality, integrity, and
credibility (Institute of Management Accountants, 2017). As a professional I use these
principles and standards to guide my professional work in decision making and management of

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organizations. As a healthcare manager, these skills are important in ensuring that I develop the
required competencies for dealing with different issues within the management environment of
healthcare. As a healthcare manager, these skills are important in managing the resources that are
required in the healthcare sector to meet the needs of the organization. Therefore, having
knowledge of the standards and principles of financial management will lead to increased
competence and ability to deal with different financial management issues that arise in the
organization.
Financial management is not just knowledge for financial organizations but rather for all
organizations that have resources within their domain. Whether profit oriented or not, all
organizations require this knowledge to deal with the issues that arise in their everyday business
environment. As a healthcare manager, I require these skills to plan, manage, control, direct and
make business decisions that shape and determine the future of the organization. Thus as a
practitioner, this knowledge is important in sustaining the organization and meeting the needs of
the organizational stakeholders in the healthcare sector.

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References
Baker, J. J., & Baker, R. (2015). Healthcare Finance; Basic Tools for Nonfinancial Managers .
Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Delkhosh, M., & Mousavi, H. (2016). Strategic Financial Management Review on the Financial
Success of an Organization. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 7(2).
Eldenburg, L. G., Krishnan, H. A., & Krishnan, R. (2017). Management Accounting and Control
in the Hospital Industry: A Review. Journal of Governmental & Nonprofit Accounting,
6(1), 52-91.
InstituteofManagementAccountants. (2017). IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice.
Institute of Management Accountants.