Applied economics: funding running and managing a company in the healthcare sector

Funding running and managing a company in the health care sector

The aim of the course is to give us the basics to understand the economic life of a company and how it can be influenced by the work of all employees (doctor, nurses, health specialists in general).

Constraints in the health-care system

The health-care system is full of constraints that impair the appropriate treatment of patients (e.g., if the CT scan number is too low for a hospital, all patients will suffer from the lack of these appropriate machines, and the health-care system of the hospital will be compromised). The same applies when doctors and nurses' numbers are too low, when too many patients need care, or when hospital budgets are too low.

Doctors deal daily with all of these constraints, mainly with financial ones. Money is not infinite and should be appropriately spent in order to provide patients the best quality of services and care possible.

Impact of SARS-Cov2 pandemic

During the SARS-Cov2 pandemic, hospitals were both hit by a huge increase in the number of patients needing care and also regarding the economic point of view. If a "healthy" economy of the hospital is maintained, also the quality of services given will be excellent.

Project proposals and economic considerations

Also, if a doctor proposes a project, it should be properly explained to economists because this project needs to be authorized by them, in order to free up resources. The ability to present a project taking into consideration all the aspects, including economic ones, is also important in the authorization of a project.

Understanding economic life in health care

In order to understand the economic life of a company, two kinds of jobs are needed:

• The one linked to the legal requirements for which dedicated and skilled people are needed (accountants)
• The other linked to how every single company decides to organize its resources (human and physical) in order to guarantee sustainability.

Doctors never do jobs of accountants but will be managers of resources (also regarding, for example, hospital beds, surgery procedures, etc.). This means that doctors' job and how they do it will directly influence the economic life of the company they work for.

Role of doctors as resource managers

The aim of this course is to give us the basics to understand the economic life of a company and how it can be influenced by the work of all employees (doctor, nurses, health specialists in general), together with realizing that doctors work as managers of resources and they have an impact on the sustainability of the company they work for.

Importance of presenting projects

It is important for the doctor to present to accountants the project he wants to be validated, explaining the pros of having that project approved (clinical findings together with positive changes that this project will make) together with the costs of that procedure. After this presentation, the accountants will decide whether this project is