CFOs List Their Top 3 Challenges

From collaboration to self-awareness, here’s what CFOs are doing to make their jobs easier.

Forging a path to success in today’s healthcare landscape is no easy task for CFOs. From collaborations big and small, to driving operational innovation, to staying receptive to the needs of staff and colleagues, CFOs are expected to juggle a lot.

Recent interviews with several financial leaders at health systems across the country offer an idea of the top challenges they’re facing, as well as the opportunities they see for improvement.

Check out this infographic for the best CFO advice from our stories.

Clinical Collaboration

The CFO’s role has evolved a lot over the past few years. The demands of the position are putting new emphasis on collaboration, particularly with others in the C-Suite. CFOs can no longer make decisions without thinking how they impact other departments, like clinical care, IT and revenue cycle management. .

Bradley Hipp, CFO and Vice President of TMC Health in Arizona, says he has learned a lot about collaboration over his career. Prior to joining TMC, Hipp served as chief financial officer for Banner University Medicine Tucson, and he has also held finance leadership positions with Loyola Medicine and WellPoint.

 Collaborating with clinical teams is a huge component to a CFO’s role, he says. Thinking of physicians as partners, not employees, is vital; both physicians and nurses have the expertise and the scientific mindset to think through operational challenges.

Hipp’s advice: “You think that you're so important with what you're trying to do, but if you don't have that collaboration with those physicians then you're not going to be successful."

Steady Innovation

A forward-thinking mindset goes hand-in-hand with the CFO’s role. From forecasting, to investments, to service lines, to technology, CFOs often feel the pressure to be a couple steps ahead of the game.

But the long game is often filled with speed bumps and barriers, and CFOs must be patient in waiting for financial results, especially when it comes to big technology investments. Sergio Melgar, CFO of UMass Memorial Health, helped lead his team through a massive system overhaul to implement Epic’s EHR. He says CFOs may find themselves breaking through unexpected barriers in this time.

Melgar’s advice: “You'll need to sort of break through more, call it personal barriers, than necessarily the system barriers.”

Being a Good Communicator

Lastly, in order for CFOs to successfully work alongside their team, they need to prioritize interpersonal and leadership skills.

Kurt Barwis, CEO of Bristol Hospital, has a long career in healthcare and beyond that spans decades, including positions of senior vice president, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and director of patient services resources. Barwis, a registered lobbyist in Connecticut, also serves on the Board of Governors of the American College of Healthcare Executives and is a fierce advocate for healthcare reform.

He says as communication strategies change within health systems over time, effectively communicating across domains can become more challenging, making self-awareness and interpersonal skills more crucial than ever.

Barwis’ advice: "The CFOs of the future really do have to have that strategic knowledge. They may be smart, but you can't put them at the top of your organization if they have no people skills, no interpersonal skills, and, most importantly, no self-awareness skills."