News / HFMA 2014: FFF efficiency tool to have four categories

04 December 2014

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Speaking at a HFMA conference ‘Learning lab’ session on shared services, John Yarnold, project manager for the future-focused finance ‘Efficient systems and processes’ action area, said he expected most trusts to be rated as established or advanced.

‘The diagnostic tool will measure how mature you are as a finance department,’ he added.

The tool, which is expected to be launched in the spring, will include questions on efficiency in a range of areas, including procure to pay and activity to cash.

Mr Yarnold said finance had to look at its efficiency and add value, with the pressures of increased demand, greater complexity of patient needs and a squeeze of funding. The focus should be on adding value by supporting clinicians and managers to make decisions on reconfiguring services,

Trusts could focus on three areas – making processes leaner; web-enabling systems, including customer self-service and automation; and organisational changes, for example introducing shared services for transactional processes.