Health Administration

Answer

Health Administration

Q1. You walk into a new job and find that there are hundreds of accounts payable checks sitting in drawers. At this point you have no idea how much cash is available and you must meet a payroll of $100,000 in 2 days. Where would you start? What would you do?

Accounts payable is the process of paying invoices and accounting, in other words, it represents the company’s updated lists of liabilities and debts (Holbrook, 2016). For good organization of the accounts payables, I would set up formal payable systems such as the spreadsheets, online finance program or excels under the manual entry accounts. Another good online option is the QuickBooks, which enhances record keeping of the various cheque or documents.

After setting up of the accounts payable system, every cheque or receipt for the incoming bill will be entered digitally into the system. The paper bills will also be organized and entered into the system digitally while filling the hard copies of the cheques. As the administrator, I will personally oversee the filling of the cheques into the accounts payable system to ensure no errors are made in the process of entry.

The trick in the best organization of these files will revolve around the creation of effective folder structure for the documents. Folder structures ensures that the files saved within them are well organized and sortable at any given time. It refers to the way the files are organized within the computer. I would create various folders at the same level depending on the dates that the cheques were paid. The individual cheques would then be entered into its respective folder as the dates for the payments indicate. The folders will then have each subfolder within it that contains the detail of the debtors who paid the bills as a way of tracking down how the hospital’s bills are paid.

These folder structure will be set in such a way that they mimic the way we operate. They would revolve around projects and quarter’s work that are being carried out by the organization. For the successful digital document management, there are simple steps that the organization would adopt. The first one is creation of a template which will copy and paste a given folder every time a new entry is being made concerning the cheques. Also, a zap would be set up to automatically create new folders that are required in the entry of new documents into the system (Holbrook, 2016).

The other way is making of a cheat sheet, which basically form a flowchart of how the files are saved for quicker reference. The folders would be kept uniquely without any overlap of the documents that are entered. For instance, there would not be an instance where cheques for two different projects are kept together. The folders for the cheques would be saved using keywords to facilitate the process of searching for the variety of folders that would be in existence. Within the created folders, I would then create archive folder to help in the identification of the document that is currently needed for the business operation (Maji, & Pal, 2016). The archive folders help retain the documents that are urgently being worked on by the organization thus enhances faster accessibility to the needed documents.

The other important way of filing the documents is by creation of a dropbox. This is one of the greatest tools for banking the documents and easily sharing them between computers and different devices. It facilitates sharing of documents with others thus making it easier for the oversight duties concerning the account payable entries by different people to ensure its authenticity (Maji, & Pal, 2016).  The dropbox would contain the various documents including invoices, account payables and other related bills in their distinct directories.

The other way of sorting this account payable system is by listing the various expenses that had been encountered by the organization (Maji, & Pal, 2016).The employees allowed to file the expenses would preferably use a business-only card for the expenses. A financial software would upload data concerning the credit card activity thus making it easier to track and prevent double entry of the same expense. In the case of the spreadsheet use, the template for the account payables would include account number, invoice provider’s name, amount paid, date of payment, and category of the expense.

The other way to ensure up to date accounts payables is by maintain good relations and monitoring spending of the organization. It is therefore important that a standard window of payment be set, reasonably with bills being paid within one month. Also monitored and maintained is the cash flow (Carter et al, 2016). This is done by establishing a parallel and effectively functioning accounts receivable system in the organization.

The account payable and the account receivable system would help in recognizing the existing gaps and mitigate those imbalances. For determination of the firm’s flexibility, the supplier payment terms that are in effect would be reviewed consistently (Carter et al, 2016). The contracts with suppliers would include their available credit and the payment terms. This would ensure that there is enough reference materials in case of any financial related issues with the account payables.

Q2. You are faced with the last days of a computer conversion and you are receiving calls that people have paid their bills, yet were not being credited for the payments. You later find no copies of receipts, yet the patients sent you copies of theirs. You know there was theft. How do you address it? How do you prove it? There were 4 people who had signed receipts. The total stolen was $10,000. Do you report it? Do you handle it yourself?

The first way to address the theft is by disciplining the employees responsible for the act. The first step is termination of the employees responsible for the act. Though various states are employment at will, meaning the employee and his employer may decide to part ways through notice moments, the employers still need to know that there is always a potential for lawsuits. To avoid such lawsuits, I would determine if any special liability exist for the employee.

After termination of the responsible employees, I would move ahead to sue the employees and allow the criminal investigation and filing of the charges to commence. This will all be in the effort of hoping to that the court would order the repayment of the funds. When the theft has been established following the investigation, I would sue the employees for the conversion of the funds. These claims do not specifically cover the employment contract breach but are made in an attempt to recover what the employee in question acquired wrongfully. The benefits of this strategy is that the organization, through its legal counsel, can ask the court to freeze all the bank accounts of the suspect to allow a reliable judgment of his funds acquisition (Lott, 2013). 

One way of repayment of the stolen funds would be by recovery from the criminal conviction of the offenders. Through the organization’s counsel, I would ensure that the criminal charges filed results in the conviction of the perpetrators. If the employees are found guilty of the crime, the organization would benefit since the court would order the restitution of the cash stolen to form part of the sentencing.

The other way to approach the recovery of this stolen funds is recovery rough the insurance companies. This would only be made possible if the organization has crime coverage, crime fidelity, dishonesty bond and employee dishonesty bond (Lott, 2013). These policies completely protects the firm from the fraudulent activities that the individual employees embark on. This insurance coverage is effected when the organization suffers theft of securities, money and properties. In this case, the money lost during these transactions makes the organization eligible to the insurance coverage.

How to prove it

There are a number of ways that I would use to prove that theft occurred in the business and get the people responsible. The first way is through conduction of periodic audits in the organization (Mayer et al, 2013). This will facilitates uncovering of altered or missing documents for the bills that should have been paid already. The amounts of cash that customers credit on the billing statements must match the funds that are collected. This will provide a basis for the launching of an investigation into the mater.

 Secondly, I would separate accounting duties depending on the size of the staff. This helps to eliminate centralized accounting duties thus makes it easy to know the people responsible for the accounting responsibility in every operation of the organization. Establishing of this framework would narrow the possibility of the people responsible for the fraud in the organization. This will increase the chances of catching up with the culprit.

The other way to catch the offenders is by running background checks on the employees and ask for employee references. This will help in narrowing down the list of the most probable suspects on the case.  Although the receipt would be missing, there are supporting documentation to the authorization and signing of the transactions by the clients (Mayer et al, 2013). To catch up with the offenders of the fraud, the supporting documentation would be thoroughly analyzed to create a relationship between the authorizer and the missing receipts.

I would handle the situation myself first before involving the top management in the issue. The first way that I would handle it is through close supervision of the employees. This will facilitate a complete understanding of the employee’s situation and help in determining whether or not to terminate their services from the organization. The other way to handle the situation is cataloguing of all existing evidence pertaining to the offense. These pieces of evidence would include security footage, financial documents, witness testimonies, and physical evidence (Mayer et al, 2013). Compiling of these pieces will help in presentation of a strong case against the offenders thus making them pay for the damages caused through their fraudulent actions.

Q3. Knowing your hospital has limited resources for capital expenditures, what information do you need to gather? Once you have gathered this information, how will you go about deciding which department, if either, should get the equipment?

Information to gather

The decision makers of hospital technology currently confront the major medical equipment and information technology which challenges the traditional form of capital allocation process. This is a highly fragmented sector that is largely driven by the reimbursement and coverage policies that are outlined by Medicare Services. Due to the scarcity of the available resources, before allocation of any technological equipment to a given department, a lot of factors must be put in place to ensure the allocation process is soundly made.

The first information to gather will be the profitability and facility that department has. The department that would be eligible for the adoption of the technological equipment is one that makes higher profit as compared to others in the organization. The acquired equipment is extremely expensive and most probably would be acquired on loan basis. Therefore, the hospital must allocate it where it would be used to accrue a large amount of money to settle the loans as soon as possible and to allow smooth operation of the organization.

Secondly, it would be sound to consider the kinds of functions that every department must perform. These functions would then be rated against the technological requirement level for each function (Davenport, 2013). The department which cannot succeed in its operations without the assistance of a technological equipment will be placed as the recipient of the technology. Also considered is the number of patients that each department would handle on a daily or monthly basis. The department that handles more people is most likely to receive the equipment. This is because allocating the equipment here will result in an improved performance of the hospital since it will ensure that a higher number of patients are served efficiently in the crowded department.

Thirdly, it would be sound to do technical capability feasibility for each of the departments presenting their proposals. This will assess the technical reasonableness of each proposal to determine which one presents a more convincing operational aspects of the technology. The technical feasibility will establish whether the departments have infrastructure and the network capability that they will use in supporting the technology (Davenport, 2013). It also will assess the consistency of each department’s proposal in terms of the technical requirements. This will ensure capacity and reliability of on the use of the equipment for the future departmental growth.

The other information to gather is the operational evaluation that reviews the extent to which the organization would change to accommodate each of the proposals presented. The most viable proposal should the one that provide better business and medical opportunity to the hospital. The eligible department must prove beyond doubt that the allocation of the technological equipment would enhance not only its operational aspects but also the management of the limited resources that are available in the hospital.

The last information to gather is the political setup of the organization. The presence of a new system will basically be determined by the organization put in place to oversee the management of the hospital (Schwalbe, 2015). This feasibility will evaluate how the internal system of the hospital will accept the technological equipment. It facilitates the user expectancy regarding the technology to be acquired and thus determine which department’s clients are most likely to embrace the technological change.

Deciding which department, if either, should get the equipment?

The decision to whether either of the department gets the equipment will depend, first, on the personal benefits that the hospital would get from the adoption of the technology. Technological adoption must exhibit a direct advantage over the traditional system that it replaces. The more visible the cost of this adoption in the individual department, the greater the potential of the rewards and apparent benefits (Schwalbe, 2015). These benefits include greater recognition, increased work value, facilitation of the work speed and solutions to the redundant problems that a department has. The department that exhibit such potentials is more eligible to receive the technological equipment.

Evaluation of the most eligible department for the technological equipment acquisition is also a major step in deciding which one receives the equipment. The objective of the evaluation is to determine the extent of the gaps that each department has in its current operational efficiency. After determination of the gaps, the departments are then ranked to give a clear picture of the department whose work is affected most by lack of the technological equipment. When such a criteria is used, the objective of the machine allocation would be to seal the existing deficits in terms of operational efficiency of the most affected department (Schwalbe, 2015). It will thus be sound to consider allocating the equipment to the hospital department whose operations have severely been affected by lack of the equipment.

Q4.  Describe the process you will use to accomplish this task, including the information you will need, and the important steps in the process.

Budget preparation refers to a process with designated individuals and organization having defined tasks that are carried out within the provided timetable (Mikesell & Ross, 2014). In most cases, the process is usually controlled by a regulatory or legal framework. With the objectives of macroeconomic assessment of the available financing and revenues, the expenditure budget aims to be realistic, policy-oriented and transparent to allow for accountability in the execution of the budgets. The process of budget reparation that I would use will consist of a number of processes.

The first process is gathering of information about the existing trends in the prices of bed. Here, I would need information concerning the income and expenses that would accrue from the acquisition of these beds. It is critical since it establishes the amount of money that is likely to be spent on the acquisition of the beds and the income that may be earned from the application of the beds.

The second process would involve obtaining the hospital’s estimate. These include estimates of services offered, the number of patients, and availability of the resources and expected cost of the acquisition process (Mikesell & Ross, 2014)). The estimates are made from the different departments, subdivisions and sub units. These estimate would be available in every department and would be provided by the departmental heads as an indication of the future conditions that could affect the performance of the organization.

The other process is coordinating the estimates and in most cases, the budget committee usually submitted by organizational units. It determines the relevance and potential of the plans to the performance of an organization (Mikesell & Ross, 2014)). The estimation of the available resources would thus be fairly done to ensure acquisition of the beds. The other step is communicating the budget. Communicating the budget to the financial manager and other concerned departments is key. The individual budget plans would then be approved depending on the organizational goals. The other important factor here is the availability of the resources for the acquisition of the beds. I will make known, the changes that are made on the final budget to obtain top managers’ support and cooperation concerning the budget.

Budget implementation is key in this process. I will present the final budget to the concerned manager in order to facilitate the adoption of the budget for the bed acquisition. To ensure full implementation of the budget, all the necessary materials, facilities and labor are key. The other process would involve reporting of the interim progress on the budgeted objectives. Here, I would prepare the performance reports that would inform the chief financial officer about the number of beds that could be achieved by in terms of the figure budgeted. 

In the budget preparation process, it is critical that one knows the rules governing the budgeting process. The first rule in the budget preparation is controlled by the constitution which is the highest ranked legal hierarchy. It clarifies the power of the executive arm of the organization to the firm’s finances. Definitions of the financial relations that exist between the national and local governments and requirements for the payment of all public funds in designated accounts are captured here (Kuratko, 2016). The organization’s budget would most probably be controlled by the financial regulation clauses that are set by the individual organization. The law gives the financial manager the power to give detail instructions and regulations about the firm’s financial expenditure. 

The other significant aspect of budget preparation is the revision of the expenditure plans. In case the budget is revised at a late stage of the budget implementation, the revision of the budget would not be successful. Such situations include where the estimates of demand-led program and open-ended budgets are revised down and revised economic beliefs on the exchange rates are invoked to justify a reduced provision. Also, reductions made in transfers to lower the governments tier, this only passes on the problem. Lastly, when the changes are made in the appropriation without altering the main expenditure policies. This makes the budget less objective thus leading to overspending against the appropriation.

The basic steps in the budget preparation

The first is update of the budget assumption and this involves reviewing of the business environment that formed the basis of the last budget and using it to update the bed acquisition budget as necessary (Kuratko, 2016). The other step is review of the bottlenecks and would involve the determination of the capacity level of the hospital and define the impact that the additional beds would have on the general operation of the hospital. The other step is creating a budget package by establishing the amount of cash that would be incurred due to the acquisition of the beds and establishment of its effects on the organization’s total expenditure. Lastly, issuing of the budget which would include creating the version of the budget and offering it to the chief financial officer. I would then load the information of the budget on the financial software to facilitate development of actual reports.

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