An Interview With A Executive Officer

• Management: Is the company's management competent? Are they people with integrity, good reputations and diligence? Do they publish financial reports regularly and on time? Do they have open communication with their shareholders? The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) plays a key role in the management of a company. Although this must be a consideration, it does not mean that a CEO with a magnificent record with one company will automatically achieve the same proficiency with another.

As a CEO or a member of the management team it is important to have a very clear understanding of all the financial documents that are available to them. It is not only their duty but their responsibility to know these documents and finances extremely well because

Over the past years, “the healthcare sector of our economy has grown rapidly”, (Cleverley, Cleverley, & Song, 2011, p. 10). In order for healthcare organizations (HCOs) to survive in our financially changing healthcare environment, they must be economically stable. The understanding of the effects of economic developments on finance is more important than ever. By understanding the financial and economic implications of our economic system, healthcare organizations will be capable of securing economic stability. When trying to stabilize financial security in healthcare capital planning is the best approach. If the working capital is not managed efficiently, the flow of money gets choked, raw material supplies interrupted, wage payments delayed,

In the health care world finances play a significant role in the quality of care rendered to the consumer. There is no health care facility that is the same when it comes to their financial management because it is needed both internally and externally to ensure that it runs properly. Today’s health care field consist of either not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations and governmental, (Gapenski, 2008).

2. Are the roles of the chairperson and chief executive officer (CEO) exercised by different individuals? This clear division of responsibility would help to counterbalance the power and influence of the CEO in the decision making of the company’s directors. Furthermore, this would enhance the supporting role that may be assumed by the chairman in being the CEO’s confidante.

Professionally, we acknowledge that hospitals have a general mission to provide a level of service for patients, but we also understand that they also require capital for a wide-range of business operations. (research, expansion of services, equipment modernization, new

The present document is a summary of the executive interview held at Midtown Imaging building located at 5405 Okeechobee Boulevard suite 101, West Palm Beach, FL 33417, on December 8, 2016 from 2:45 to 3:45 PM between Ernst Pierre, the Northwood student and Mr. Alan M. Levine, RT (R) ARRT, Midtown Imaging department manager of Good Samaritan Medical center. The latter, a 333-bed hospital in West Palm Beach is owned by the Tenet Health, which is a healthcare services company that operates 79 hospitals, 20 short-stay surgical hospitals and 470 out-patient centers in the United States, and 9 facilities in the United Kingdom. Tenet Health has more than 130, 000 employees and more than 20,000 beds. The company collaborates with other healthcare services companies such as Conifer Health Solutions and United Surgical Partners International in order to enhance healthcare solutions throughout the care chain.

There were many options to interview for this assignment, after careful thought on whom to interview, I decided to interview someone outside of my work environment. I chose to interview a healthcare director who is much energized towards making change and being the best leader they can be. I liked the idea of interviewing this individual for the experience of having some awareness into an organization which I knew very little about, it was insightful to see leadership within a different frame of reference than I typically see within my work environment. The person I met with asked not to be named directly, his title is a director level at a large healthcare organization. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Ferris State and a Master’s degree (I don’t recall the college) in healthcare administration. He is a very energetic person and is very clear in the importance of good leadership. He was quick to start our meeting and take the lead by emphasizing to me how critical leadership is and that it’s a critical component towards the success of any organization, effective leaders help ensure that everyone works together seamlessly and they are much more likely to achieve the organization’s goals and success. A successful leader will be vital in motivating employees, communicating strategic directions and achieving organizational goals, without a good leader all of the organizations resources are less effective than they could be.

Schafer and Bell (2005) discuss some of the things a Chief Executive Officer must do in order to provide strong financial leadership. One thing a Chief Executive Officer must do is hire a financial staff that is knowledgeable about not only basic finance practices but those that are specific to nonprofit needs such as the ins and outs of restricted and non-restricted funds and the use of the Statement of Accounting Standard 117. The CEO must also hire an appropriate amount of staff to make sure everything is being done in the most efficient manner and allow for accountability. Schafer and Bell (2005) also talked about following a standardized set of financial practices that help keep the organization in line with everyone else so if new staff do come in they are able to come into a system that they are more than likely familiar with. The other thing that Schafer and Bell (2005) talk about is having a uniform accounting system. To do this an organization must have a chart of accounts which helps keep track of all financials and makes it easy for non-finance staff to interact with. Most of all, whether an organization’s CEO has a finance background or not it is their responsibility to develop that skill so they are able to successfully navigate that aspect of their organization and have a strong financial presence so they are able to lead in that

The greatest financial challenges to a health care provider are its revenue cycle and receivable management. The revenue cycle is the process that includes all the administrative as well as the clinical functions that are essential and important for capturing, managing, and collecting the patient service revenue whereas the receivable management deals with the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the receivables. Therefore when all these are taken into account with proper measures they can serve well in making the health care provider sustainable in financial decision. Well if we look at the health care organization we can concatenate many of these who are actually available for the discussion of their alternative to the

449). Secondly, the Chief Executive Officer is an organizational leader following standards of conducts that refer “the officer reasonably believes to be in the corporation’s best interest” (Thompson, 2008, p. 17). A strong leader can only lead when that leader knows what direction they are going. For example, one activity for distributing from centralized leadership is “a structural layer that forms the overall frame and direction for knowledge creation in the organization”; therefore, knowledge of proper management skills is important (Jain & Jeppesen, 2013, p. 349). To overcome a leaderless organization an employee or manager can take initiative by setting department goals that include a mission and a vision. Then, strategically formulate organizational goals that support the corporation’s best interests. All in all, an organizations department management team can create a strategic management process per department that supports the organizations best interest.

Healthcare is reforming and this is requiring that healthcare organizations capital budgeting strategies reform and align with the quality focus of health care today. Outpatient asset investments are increasing while inpatient asset capital investments are declining. This is a fundamental concept important to note when writing on capital budgeting in today’s healthcare setting. Mukherjee, T., Al Rahahleh, N., Lane, W., & Dunn, J. (2016).

L. D. Bennett immediately captures your attention. The passion and enthusiasm for her profession as an executive coach is evident from the moment you start asking questions. Our phone interview lasted for nearly an hour and covered multiple topics. Threaded throughout the conversation was one word -- intentionality. L. D. used that word to describe her journey, as a pillar of her practice and as her goal of being a better coach. Her experiences, career path, education, connections with coaches throughout her life, and being intentional have led L. D. Bennett to a successful coaching practice.

The payment system in health care is evolving and if a health care organization does not change with it, it will fail. The health care organizations need to reduce their cost and reduce inpatient days because refund from the government can be affected. In addition, when costs and inpatients days are reduce, there needs to be other areas improved to gain more net worth. Therefore, quality needs to be improved so that there is more income entering the organization. Also, the leaders of the organization need to budget their finances so that they can reach all their goals and maintain their philosophy. According to Wolper (2013), “group practices have struggled to cope with declining reimbursement, increasing purchaser pressure, and a constantly shifting environment”. (p. 89) This is why I believe the payment system is one of the areas that will impact health care organizations now and in the future.

In order to be successful in the long range, the CEO's strategy must encompass countless factors. He must devise a plan to grow the business in the face of competitors, not only from within the United States but from any and every region of today's global economy. The CEO calls the plays for a team of tens (and sometimes hundreds) of thousands of workers. All of the actions of every employee and every aspect of the business must be coordinated and integrated to produce the cars, computers or CAT scanners that yield profits to the company. It is the CEO who is responsible for that integration.