Strong medicine: rethinking the PFS director's role - patient financial services - includes related article on accounts receivable management

Healthcare Financial Management, August, 1991 by Carol Bradford, Arnold Simoni, Dudley Medlock

Human resources management involves effective managing productivity within a hospital patient accounting department. A PFS director should be capable of:

* Educating, training, and supporting employees, along with attracting a quality staff, building a strong "team," and encouraging their ongoing development;

* Demonstrating an ability to "sell" the PFS department's needs and goals to gain the support of other directors, physicians, and senior management;

* Defining policies that are applicable and flexible and that allow delegation of authority to responsible persons;

* Responding to peer groups, physicians, and senior management in a service-oriented manner;

* Anticipating needs by using creativity and flexibility to address economic changes that will affect departmental activities; and

* Leading by example and acting as a coach and a motivator.

Refining and upgrading the role of a hospital's PFS director implies a broader scope of responsibility than is currently assigned to the position. PFS directors need the authority to plan, organize, control, and direct departmental activities, from registration to account resolution. This is a key to changing out-dated perceptions of the position. In expanding a PFS director's responsibilities to include registration and admissions as well as billing and collections, a hospital empowers the individual to have control over each step of cash management and collections.

By rethinking the role of its top cash manager, a hospital can begin to solve cash flow problems. Upgrading, and redefining the position and its functions not only sets the course for a long-term solution to receivables problems but focuses on a hospital's chief asset: its people.

Carol Bradford is president of Carol Bradford, Ltd., a Larkspur, Calif., consulting firm that specializes in executive search and management development. She is a member of HFMA's Northern California Chapter.

Arnold Simoni is vice president and chief financial officer at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Calif.

(a) American Hospital Association Monitrend II data, as published in HEALTHCARE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, June 1991, p. 124.

(b) Pellar, J. Robert and William A. MacFarlane, "Patient accounts managers' role comes into focus," HEALTHCARE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, April 1991, p. 60.