The Hospital Boardroom is outwardly focused and intended to orient the new leader to topics that are commonly encountered and of paramount importance in hospital board meetings, medical executive committees, and other governance bodies. These include:
- Orientation to organizational structure and design in large health care organizations
- Interpreting financial statements
- Principles of hospital costing
- Funds flow
- The role of radiology in hospital operations
- Performance measures
Fundamental to this chapter will be an appreciation of the priorities and interests of stakeholders outside the radiology department, the nature of their concerns, and the impact of radiology performance on overall hospital and medical staff performance.
Stewarding the Department is inwardly focused on leading and managing colleagues to advance departmental performance and respond to environmental changes and larger organizational priorities. Topics include key determinants of financial performance:
- Understanding and managing costs
- Revenue cycle considerations
- Structure, design and accountability within the radiology group or department
- Building, empowering and supporting effective teams
- Leading people
These latter topics include communication, executive amplitude, being comforter-in-chief and other human resource concerns, developing and communicating strategy as well as tactics, and decision making in the face of ambiguity.
Influence Change at the Hospital Level builds on prior sessions which focused on business planning, specifically organizational elements of designing and shepherding a plan and financial forecasting accounting for uncertainties that drive project acceptance.
Tools and topics for this final session will include:
- Providing tools to engage and influence key leaders and stakeholders across the organization to align interests and assure informed decisions.
- An introduction to the legal department and its role in a large organization.
- Discuss how and when to engage and the leader’s responsibilities to manage conflicts and provide stewardship with integrity.
Because medical imaging is resource intensive, affects fundamental aspects of efficient care delivery, and provides critical inputs to patient management, radiologists must be prepared to inform and influence decisions.