Strategic Plan

2010 - 2012 Strategic Plan

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

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Overview

The Nebraska Chapter of HFMA will continue our mission to promote education and professional development of our members. Our Chapter’s highest priority is service to our members and sustained excellence in performance.

Our future goals of the Chapter incorporate a balanced approach in our service to our members and the development of Chapter goals through five foundational elements: Education, Networking, Collaboration, Membership/Professional Development, and Finance. The plan applies specific goals and targets to each committee chair for attainment of those goals and implements a long-term focused marketing campaign to ensure progress is maintained.

This strategic plan outlines the framework in which the Nebraska Chapter officers, Board of Directors, and the committee chairs will operate for the upcoming fiscal year and beyond. The strategic plan that follows this executive summary outlines our mission and vision as well as our core Chapter values and our balanced approach to the future.

Chapter Foundation
Environmental Assessment
Chapter Survey Report
External Assessment
Internal Assessment
Essential Issues - Balanced Approach
2010 - 2012 Strategic Initiatives
2008 - 2009 Operational Goals and Objectives

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 strengthen our position as the leading professional organization in Nebraska for individuals seeking education, professional development, networking and access to current information affecting the financial management of healthcare organizations.

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.
Innovation: The Chapter will encourage new ideas from the officers, board members and chapter members. As a Chapter we believe in being attentive to new opportunities and valuing creative solutions that will promote education and professional development.

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 FY08 compared to 9 in FY04); average years in healthcare (17 years in FY08 compared to 17 years in FY04); and average age (46 in FY08 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.

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.

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 seven 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.

Economy

The current economy has negative impact to hospitals including cut backs in travel, education and memberships. The Economic Stimulus bill was passed quickly and has unknown impact.

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 and a Chapter Advancement Team (CAT) member
Positive member perception of educational programs and member communications including the newsletter and website
Opportunities for professional development and networking with peers
Strong member participation with 55% of our membership attending local chapter events
Financial stability and resources
Strong sponsorship support including serving in volunteer leadership roles, promoting networking opportunities, participating as Chapter speakers, and providing the consulting perspective
Number of certified members
Involvement of over 35 members in volunteer leadership roles
New member activities include new member spotlight, buddy program, peer advisor, and rookie of the year
Up-to-date, member-focused website
Past leadership participation increase of 76% in FY09

Weaknesses

Geographic distance of a state-wide chapter
Intermittent participation by urban facilities
Differences between urban and rural, as well as, CAH hospitals and PPS hospitals.
Average attendance at our four major education events of 18% of membership in FY08 and 15% in FY07
Chapter and committee leadership duties are a secondary priority to work and family
Inactive senior members
Divided loyalty with other professional organizations
Time constraints of members

Opportunities/Goals

Collaboration on innovative educational events
Build collaborative alliances with fellow HFMA chapters, governmental and other healthcare professional organizations
Increase new member involvement
Identification of valuable, up-to-date educational topics
Recognized as chapter with the highest percentage of certified members in the country
Increase the number of members involved in chapter meetings
Video Conferencing and Web Casting opportunities
Promote networking opportunities
Increase awareness of chapter and member opportunities and benefits
Groom members for future leadership roles
Increase participation from entry level finance and PFS professionals

Threats

Competitive marketing of educational programs by other organizations and National HFMA to our membership
Internet communication filters; therefore, our member communications may not be received or acknowledged
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.

2010 - 2012 Strategic Initiatives

The goal with this process was the validation of the Chapter’s mission, vision and values. An intermediate goal was the development of a balanced approach in determining and prioritizing the Chapter’s long-term initiatives to ensure our resources are appropriately utilized where the membership will respond to our observed opportunities in participation in education programs and member recruitment/retention. The identification and implementation of short-term strategic initiatives assists the Chapter in obtaining its’ long-term goals and objectives. The Chapter’s short-term strategic initiatives are as follows:

Collaboration – engage and influence the larger community:

Establish regional collaborative relationships with key healthcare associations: (e.g. BRVN, AAHAM, and Hospital Associations).
Provide members with resource information.
Develop Collaboration Committee to build collaborative relationships.
Collaborate with other HFMA chapters to provide regional webinars.

Education – expand current education programs:

Provide timely, quality, cost-effective, relevant education.
Achieve the five-year Shelton Award for sustained excellence.
Achieve the C. Henry Hottum award for educational performance improvement.

Finance – operate chapter activities in fiscally sound manner:

Ensure break-even annual budget (including education programs).
Maintain focus on sponsorship value.

Membership/Professional Development: – promote professional development opportunities:

Develop and conduct 50th anniversary celebration.
Recruit and retain members.
Increase membership involvement in committees.
Continue focus on certification.
Provide measurable membership value and satisfaction.

Networking – encourage interaction to enhance personal and professional relationships:

Provide innovative social networking opportunities.
Promote senior member involvement.

2010 Operational Goals and Objectives

The Chapter’s strategic goals and objectives, which will be used as the foundation of accomplishing our strategic initiatives, are listed below:

Awards/Social/Community

Award an HFMA shirt to all certified members.
Celebrate new certifications, promotions, etc. by submitting press releases to local news media announcing award recipients and certification winners.
Coordinate social events at Winter and Annual meetings.
Develop a vendor fair at the Annual meeting. Work with the Sponsorship Committee.
Coordinate a community service event. Work with Programming Committee.

Certification Committee

Increase number of certification exams taken by 23 during the year.
Continue to encourage certification of chapter leaders. Goal for board of directors is 75% by 2011.
Reimburse candidates for exam/certification fees for all successful exams and one unsuccessful.
Continue chapter awareness of the certification program through newsletter articles, emailing updates on certification, exploring study group opportunities, and study guide check out procedures.
Recruit and train a new committee member for succession planning.

Bylaws Committee

Review the chapter constitution and bylaws as necessary and coordinate approval with the board of directors.
Implement any additional changes from nationals regarding new bylaws from previous year.
Communicate any new revisions to chapter members.

Financial Review Committee

Ensure that the board has appropriate oversight and involvement in the finance function.
Implement a process to retain FY 2009-10 records electronically and all fiscal years going forward in accordance with the document retention and destruction policy.
Organize a group of officers and committee chairs to review all prior year retained records and dispose of items not in scope of document retention and destruction policy.
Supervise financial review.

Founders Awards/CEU Committee

Submit accurate Founders Points to national HFMA by the August 1 deadline.
Assist members with any questions or corrections to their Founders Points.
Write informational article for May newsletter on the different Founders awards.
Generate an Awards Eligibility Report at the beginning of the fiscal year and inform members who are within 10 points of earning an award.
Create and publish a Founders Award pamphlet by June 2010.
Recruit and train a new committee member for succession planning.

Membership Committee

Continue the welcome e-mail to new members.
Contact new members before an event to encourage attendance.
Follow up with a thank you note to all new members after the meeting.
Identify and introduce new and non-members during educational sessions and thank them for attending.
Continue the New Member spotlight.
Work the non-renewer list.
Provide a chapter directory for chapter members to serve as a comprehensive resource guide.
Continue with program of recognizing members’ anniversaries in 5 years increments.
Focus on the maintenance of the membership count from prior year.
Continue with the new member name tags.
Coordinate new member breakfast with the Board of Directors and Committee Chairs.
Target new membership goals: (i) at least one member per hospital; (ii) for facilities with one member, set a target at a second member; and (iii) encourage non-member attendees at educational sessions from all hospitals.
Increase membership benefits (i.e., Prize drawings for membership attendance at educational event.
Develop a Return on Investment letter for new members, non-members, and employers illustrating the benefits of membership and the discounts offered to members for educational events.
Continue with Rookie of the Year Program.
Continue with Buddy Program.
Assist in 50th Anniversary Committee planning.
Encourage participation in the member satisfaction survey and achieve >49% of members responding with “very satisfied” or “extremely satisfied”.

Newsletter Committee

Publish at least four newsletters per year, each within one month following the four educational meetings.
Advertise the Rookie of the Year Award.
Have written copies of the newsletter available at educational meetings.
Involve members and leaders in article submission.
Spotlight more new members throughout the year.
Publish at least one article or item from each committee every year.
Use the newsletter to promote and increase HFMA membership.
Include a recap of the meetings including photographs of the previous educational event.
Publish upcoming event bulletins to build membership interest in the speaker, topic, and event.
Have an article regarding: (a) CHFP CPE requirements; (b) Sample CHFP questions; and (c) Founders points.
Provide a giveaway for questions in newsletter, i.e. tickets to an event in Omaha/Lincoln in summer of 2010. Potentially look for a sponsor to fund the event.
Consider use of social networks to share information. Work with Website/Technology Committee.
Timely DCMS reporting of newsletters.

Nominating Committee

Develop a proposed slate of candidates for officers and vacancies of the Board of Directors.
Distribute the annual election ballot and summarize the results.
Communicate results first to all candidates and then to the chapter.
Review and follow succession plan and recommend any changes to Board of Directors.
Organize a breakfast or dinner meeting of Past Presidents who are current members of the Nebraska Chapter. The current President can use this meeting as a sounding board for concerns/challenges and they can also communicate current year direction/accomplishments to Past Presidents.

Policies and Procedures Committee

Review job descriptions for officer and committee roles.
Reorganize manual into policies section and job description section.
Write new Collaboration and Yerger Committee policies.

Programming Committee

Achieve Gold Standard for educational hours.
Achieve Hottum award (6.8% increase in education hours over prior year).
Timely DCMS reporting of education events.
Utilize subcommittees for planning and programming.
Conduct the four traditional educational sessions:

      * NHA Mid-Year meeting, June 4-5, Norfolk
      * NHA/HFMA Annual Convention, October 14-16, Lincoln
      * Winter Meeting, January 21-22, North Platte
      * HFMA Annual Meeting, March 25-26, Omaha
Look for opportunities to co-sponsor education sessions (webinar and in-person sessions with other chapters, payers and organizations):

      * Partner with BRVN for education – June 3 Studer Group presentation on Accountability
      * Partner with AAHAM for their September and April meeting
      * Partner with Iowa HFMA Chapter for webinars
      * Develop Region 8 webinars
      * Coordinate a joint NE/IA/SD meeting in Council Bluffs, IA and golf outing. The topic is
         Lean and Quality Healthcare with the date to be determined
Develop cost effective programming and be cognizant of the economic environment.
Submit education planning tool to National by June 1, 2009.
Incorporate community service events into the four main quarterly meetings. Work with Awards/Social Committee (Yerger possibility).
Utilize hospital facilities as programming sites when possible (showcase new additions/facilities).
Develop a Lunch n’ Learn webinar series with one program per month.
Conduct Accounting Update with Seim Johnson in Omaha in December 2009.
Conduct Nursing Home workshop.
Conduct a two-day workshop on Rural Health and Cost Report Boot Camp featuring the new cost report forms.
Conduct a Charity Care workshop.
Explore Healthcare Fundamentals traveling road show.
Consider one Omaha dinner meeting on legislative update or wage index.
Explore a different on-line registration process.
Explore “Go-to-Webinar” software to reduce webinar costs.

Sponsorship Committee

Increase sponsorship dollars by 10% based on dollars received after the 08/09 Yerger award period.
Target new sponsors from significant vendors of hospital members such as software companies, banks, hospital suppliers, equipment servicing companies, and advertising firms.
Maintain co-chair to focus on targeting new sponsors; existing chair to maintain good relationship with current sponsors.
Survey sponsors regarding concerns and comments and ad sizes for newsletters.
Develop a vendor fair at the Annual meeting. Work with the Social Committee.

Strategic Planning Committee

Confirm Mission, Vision, and Values and address strategic goals over three-year period and communicate these to chapter members.
Facilitate the Strategic Planning retreat in March 2010.
Prepare Balanced Scorecard on a quarterly basis for Board review.
Submit Chapter Strategic Plan to National by June 1, 2009.

Website/Technology Committee

Maintain links with other key health care associations and surrounding chapters.
Recruit new committee members to explore use of social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
List pre-approval information for CPE hours and retain information for Founders education requirements.

Collaboration Committee (New)

Establish regional collaborative relationships with key healthcare associations (e.g. BRVN, AHAAM, and NHA).
Add three to five members to committee to develop relationships and make contacts.
Identify opportunities to collaborate on programming events.

50th Anniversary Committee (New)

Plan the chapter’s 50th anniversary (9/29/2010) celebration.
Add five to ten members to help with the event.

Yerger Committee (New)

Identify and pursue four single chapter Yerger opportunities. Possibilities include:

      a. Coordinate a community service event
      b. Increase sponsorship by 10%
      c. BRVN partnership for education
      d. Develop Lunch-N-Learn education series
      e. Utilize social networking
Identify and pursue at least one joint Yerger opportunity. Possibilities include:

a. Joint education meeting with Iowa and South Dakota
b. Develop Region 8 webinar series
Add two to four members to committee to assist with review of Yerger applications.
Ensure that Yerger applications are properly and timely submitted.

Chapter Information