Comment / Look to the stars

By Sue Jacques

I've never had aspirations to be a particle physicist or anything similar. In fact the dog-eared text book my comprehensive school gave me to study O-level physics stood no chance against Jackie magazine (ladies of a certain age will know exactly what I mean).

I was recently interviewed by one of our consultants for our quarterly medical journal. It was a Desert island discs-style interview. And in keeping with that well-tried formula, I'd been asked to identify a book, in addition to the Bible and the Complete works of Shakespeare, that I'd like to take with me.
 
I thought long and hard, discounting favourites as the practical accountant inside me urged me to go for something that would sustain and intrigue me over what could clearly be an extended period of isolation. This prompted me to opt for the complete works of Brian Cox. At one level, this surprised me and caused me to reflect on my newly surfacing intellect.

However, it became abundantly clear that my interest had been sparked by the way that the subject has been presented. The interactive approach taken in programmes such as Stargazing  is inspiring and makes what could be a bewildering subject accessible to all of us.

Now, as finance professionals there's probably a thing or two we could learn from this. Imagine a world where NHS finance is accessible and fascinating to all - we could achieve so much. It is not about dumbing down, but about finding ways to engage listeners in an important, but potentially dry or technical, subject.

From a practical perspective this requires us, as finance professionals, to understand the 'business' we're in. We have to speak the language of our clinical colleagues and not bamboozle them with accountancy gobbledygook. We need to present information that is relevant in an accessible form, using graphical representations. We need to tie financial information to data that pushes their buttons, such as clinical outcomes and comparative data by clinician.

Most of all we need to inspire them to want to understand. This means refusing to issue turgid second-rate sets of numbers for things that are not within their direct control. Instead we need to give them information that they understand and can directly influence. When we cost we need to do it with a degree of sophistication and involve them in it. We can't just apportion and reapportion data to the extent that it becomes meaningless.

So my challenge to us all is to take a Stargazing approach to the work we do with our colleagues and engage them so that the clinical partnerships we form are more powerful than ever.

The HFMA's own vice president, Tony Whitfield, has this in his sights with the work he is leading on clinical costing. Costing data can play a major role in our efforts to improve quality and productivity. But our approaches have to make sense and be informed by best practice. We need clinicians engaged in the costing process itself but then buying into the robustness of the data produced so they use it to inform their decision-making - so vital to the improvement process.

Tony has put together a new strategic costing group to ensure the association's voice is heard in some of the key debates that are being held and need to be held around costing and tariff production. Any finance directors interested in getting involved or knowing more should contact the HFMA on [email protected] .