2009 - 2011

Strategic Plan

Prepared by the Chapter Officers, Board of Directors,
and Committee Chairs for the Fiscal Year beginning June 1, 2008

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Overview

Chapter Foundation

Environmental Assessment

Chapter Survey Report

External Assessment

Internal Assessment

Essential Issues - Balanced Approach

2009 - 2011 Strategic Initiatives

2008 - 2009 Operational Goals and Objectives

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CHAPTER FOUNDATION

Chapter Mission Statement

The mission of the Nebraska Chapter of HFMA is to promote education and professional development of our members and other healthcare professionals through ongoing educational opportunities.  The following underlying core principles support our mission statement:

• Provide professional development through educational sessions offered to our members and other healthcare professionals.
  
• Promote professional development through certification opportunities and leadership development through active participation in Chapter leadership roles and peer interaction.
  
• Encourage our members and guests to interact at all Chapter social events in order to promote networking and communications.
  
• Promote and maintain professional and ethical standards of conduct.
  
• Influence health policy decisions, practices and principles, through dissemination of information and advocacy by the Chapter membership and other health care professionals.

Chapter Vision Statement

To become the leading professional organization in Nebraska for individuals seeking education, professional development, networking and access to current information in the areas of and affecting the financial management of healthcare organizations of any size.

Chapter Values

The Chapter has identified core values, which ensure that our strategic direction is in line with the ideals espoused by our profession as well as those that lead our national programs.  These include:

• Excellence: We will continuously strive to offer the highest quality educational programs and events to our members and guests.
  
• Integrity: The Chapter will demonstrate and promote honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, trustworthiness and fairness; sticking to self-imposed high standards of ethics, principles and work quality in all Chapter affairs.
  
• Respect: The Chapter will promote and maintain respect, dignity and fairness for all individuals. As our membership becomes more diverse, we must foster an environment of professional respect.
  
• Responsibility: The Chapter¡¦s programs will be based on sound financial principles in accordance with our annual budget.
  
• Service: Our highest priority is service to our members, by offering educational sessions to meet their professional development needs.
  
• Teamwork: We will encourage participation by our members in Chapter leadership roles. Active participation is vital to our Chapter¡¦s relevancy and long-term success.
  
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ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

I.  Chapter

Healthcare industry issues at both the national and local level have affected every aspect of the Nebraska Chapter. These factors have directly impacted member enrollment as well as member involvement in Chapter activities.  The impact of these factors include:

• The trend in membership growth within the Nebraska Chapter has continued to remain fairly steady.
  
• The Chapter is seeing minimal change in average years in HFMA (10 years in FY07 compared to 9 in FY04); average years in healthcare (18 years in FY07 compared to 17 years in FY04); and average age (45 in FY07 compared to 44 in FY04).
  
• Geographical diversity in membership (FY06 45% rural/55% urban) creates challenges in educational programming.
  
• The Nebraska Chapter has one of the highest percentages of Certified/Fellow members nationally at 13.1% in FY07 (35 members) and continues to grow yearly.
  
• The long-term commitment of the Chapter members is evident by Founder’s Award winners with 64 bronze (24.6%), 37 (14.2%) silver, 14 (5.4%) gold, and 2 (.8%) medal of honor.
  
• The number of educational offerings and networking opportunities has remained constant over the past several years, well above the gold level, as evidenced by the high number in registrant education hours per member.
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HFMA Chapter Survey Report

Members of the Nebraska Chapter participated in the recent Chapter survey report conducted by the national HFMA office. The results are based on a scoring system of 0=Dissatisfied, 1=Neutral, 2=Satisfied, 4=Very Satisfied, 5=Extremely Satisfied. The 2008 survey included responses from 70 total statewide members for a 36% response rate. In comparison, the response rate for 2006 was 55%.

The Chapter members satisfaction score of high was 71.4% with the HFMA Nebraska Chapter overall, compared to 56.1% from all regional and national Chapters participating in the survey. In the nine broad categories measured, Chapter members were more satisfied compared to the regional and national counterparts in all categories. Areas of strength include Member Communications, Networking Opportunities, and Educational Topics and Programs.

In the area of opportunities for improvement, a total of six factors were measured. Four of these six areas accounted for 90% of our members’ responses. These four areas included topics addressed at educational programs, location of Chapter programs, networking opportunities and coverage of regional and state issues. Our chapter membership mirrors the response of the national HFMA membership with programming topics and location being the areas of the most importance.  All four areas are addressed in the chapter and committee goals.

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  EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT

 Governmental Regulations

• Healthcare financial professionals are required to possess and maintain a broad understanding of regulatory and operational issues affecting all sectors of healthcare.  With an increasing demand and complexities of these issues, a burden is placed on healthcare professionals to lead their organizations to compliance with related mandates.  Healthcare professional organizations are likewise challenged to meet the increased demand of their membership for up-to-date education and tools.

Membership

• An increased need for broadened educational offerings will include a demand for more programs on general management and leadership skill development, other non-financial topics, and topics that may reflect the relevance of the many components of the organization that contribute to successful financial performance.
  
• The chapter must be responsive to the diverse programming needs of hospital-based members who work in various settings: urban, rural, teaching, rehabilitation, home care, skilled nursing facilities, physician clinics, third party payers, etc.
  
• The shift over the last six years to cost-based reimbursement and prospective payment reimbursement has cause a huge gap between the CAH hospitals and PPS hospitals.   The chapter must provide additional uniquely targeted programming for both categories.
  
• The Nebraska HFMA Chapter is a state-wide Chapter.  The distance across our state is 500 miles.  The Chapter must be proactive in utilizing web-based programming and rotating programming opportunities throughout the state to meet the needs our membership. 

 Technology

• Technology allows us to bring cost-effective programming to our members’ facilities.  Web-based or teleconference formats enables members to share programming opportunities with fellow staff at a low cost without the added costs of travel time and expense.  The technology also allows us to provide additional educational opportunities to our remotely located members, members with limited time to be out of the office, multiple attendees from facilities, etc.
  
• This same technology also increases the competition to provide education to our members, as our members are more accessible to other regional and national organizations via the internet and videoconferencing. 

 HFMA National

• National HFMA provides to our chapter a clear direction of the vision it has for the organization.  As a chapter, we evaluated the national platform and prioritized those initiatives with the greatest benefit to our members in which we will invest our Chapter resources.    HFMA National has implemented a new balanced scorecard with goals that chapters must meet for award eligibility.
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INTERNAL ASSESSMENT

An internal assessment of our Chapter yielded the following conclusions:

Strengths

• Chapter momentum with leadership, programming, member involvement, past-presidents involvement, and overall chapter performance including a Regional Executive representative from our chapter
  
• Positive member perception of educational programs and member communications including the newsletter and website
  
• Opportunities for professional development and networking with peers
  
• Strong member retention with 55% of our membership participating in local chapter events
  
• Financial stability and resources
  
• Strong sponsorship support including serving in volunteer leadership roles, promoting networking opportunities, participating in speaker’s bureau, provides the consulting perspective, etc.
  
• Number of certified members
  
• Involvement of over 35 members in volunteer leadership roles
  
• New member activities including new member breakfast, new member spotlight, buddy program, peer advisor, etc.
  
• Up-to-date, member-focused website

Weaknesses

• Geographic distance of a state-wide chapter
  
• Not all rural hospital FEs are members (7.5%)
  
• Intermittent participation by urban facilities
  
• Differences between urban and rural, as well as, CAH hospitals and PPS hospitals
  
• 45% of the membership is inactive with 65% of the urban CFOs inactive
  
• Average attendance at our programs of 25% of membership
  
• Chapter and committee leadership duties are a secondary priority to work and family
  
• Inactive veteran members and past leadership including divided loyalty with other professional organizations
  
• Time constraints of members

 Opportunities/Goals

• Diverse selection of educational event locations
  
• To build and maintain collaborative alliances with fellow HFMA chapters and other healthcare professional organizations
  
• Increase new member involvement
  
• Identification of valuable, up-to-date educational topics
  
• Grow the number of certified members within our chapter
  
• Engage FEs and CFOs from all categories of our membership with an emphasis on urban FEs/CFOs
  
• Utilize strong membership value to increase membership and events involvement
  
• Increase the number of members involved in local events
  
• Continue the financial stability of the Chapter
  
• Video Conferencing and Web Casting opportunities
  
• Promote networking opportunities
  
• Increase awareness of chapter and member opportunities and benefits
  
• Groom members for future leadership roles
  
• Acknowledge members professional achievements and industry commitment
  
• Increased participation from entry level finance and PFS professionals

 Threats

• Competitive marketing of educational programs by other organizations and National HFMA to our membership
  
• Accessibility of other organizations to our membership via internet
  
• Internet communication filters; therefore, our member communications may not be received or acknowledged
  
• Educational budget constraints within members’ organizations
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ESSENTIAL ISSUES - BALANCED APPROACH

The Chapter leadership determined that even with the exceptional programs it offered the Chapter it needs to maintain a focused, measurable, understandable and long-term approach to addressing the concerns of our members and to sustaining excellence. The Chapter Strategic Planning Committee facilitates the yearly assessment of the current strategic planning process included a review and revalidation of the Chapter’s mission, vision and value statements, along with a complete review of Chapter member survey. 

Through this assessment, the key “pillars” our members and their leaders valued are revalidated. These foundational pillars are identified and defined as follows:

• Collaboration: The Nebraska Chapter of HFMA will endeavor to engage and influence the larger community by using our resources to address community needs; sharing our knowledge, expertise and viewpoints to influence regulation and legislation; and always seeking to identify and achieve the greater public good.
  
• Education: The Nebraska Chapter of the HFMA will expand its current education programs by developing new ways to reach our urban members, rural members, and PFS members developing new services and products which meet the needs of our members, and developing new member segments that facilitate the identification of education needs.
  
• Finance:  The Nebraska Chapter of HFMA will operate the chapter activities in a fiscally sound manner according to the direction of the Board of Directors.
  
• Membership/Professional Development: The Nebraska Chapter of HFMA will value the commitment of our members and promote professional development opportunities for our members through the use of certification programs, focused mentoring programs, and leadership development opportunities within the Chapter.
  
• Networking: The Nebraska Chapter of HFMA will leverage the professional and corporate membership of the Chapter to encourage interaction, enhance personal and professional relationships, and improve communication between the financial and business managers of the healthcare institutions within our state.

The pillars represent the areas measured on the chapter’s balanced scorecard.  The measurements include the national metrics and chapter specific initiative tracking.  The measurement benchmarks are set based on the DCMS award levels, national/regional benchmarks and our past chapter performance.

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2009 - 2011 Strategic Initiatives