Essentials of Health Care Organization Finance: A Primer for Board Members

"Finally! The book that all health care board members needed but were afraid to ask for! Those dark days of staring at incomprehensible numbers during board meetings, of nervous nodding when their financially-literate brethren make comments or ask questions, of voting on things that they do not understand are gone! This book is long overdue and should be read by every trustee who is not a finance professional."
--James E. Orlikoff, president, Orlikoff & Associates, Inc. and executive director, American Governance & Leadership Group

Accounting for $1.4 trillion in expenditures (13.7 percent of gross domestic product), health care is one of the nation's largest and fastest growing industries. This concise, expertly written primer on health care organization finance is a nuts and bolts guide to what has become every hospital's most sensitive topic. Health care organization board members must possess basic financial competence to govern effectively. This book will help them acquire, easily and painlessly, the basic financial literacy essential for discharging their roles and fulfilling their fiduciary duties.

Dennis D. Pointer is Austin Ross Professor at the University of Washington, School of Public Health and Community Medicine. He is one of the country’s most highly regarded governance consultants. Two of his previous books, Really Governing and Board Work have won the James Hamilton Book of the Year Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Dennis M. Stillman is associate director, Program in Health Services at the University of Washington where he teaches graduate-level courses in accounting and finance. For twelve years, he was chief financial officer at the University of Washington Medical Center.