2023 Agenda

The Covid-19 fallout continues to unravel, with inflation at 40-year highs, supply chains in disruption and the possibility of a recession or stagflation. These are just some of the macro events taking shape that will impact budgets and your ability to effectively manage your organization’s finances.

Gain a big picture of the economic headwinds so that you can assess the risks and prepare for coming years.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• What macro trends are we seeing that will affect provincial and federal budgets to deliver on their funding models?
• What can we expect over the short and long term with interest rates, and their impact on capital financing projects?
• How to plan during so much uncertainty.

With increasing demands for increased health-system capacity, the expectations of corporate finance, human resources, and operations teams are shifting from advisors to drivers of major transformations.

This session will explore lessons gleaned from seven transformations at national, provincial, and local levels which involved diverse finance functions and operations teams.

Key Session Takeaways Include: 

• The importance of engaged leadership and their role in building capacity
• Alternative models for motivating and influencing change
• Strategies for to prioritizing and scheduling a workplan
• Rethinking procurement to deliver supplies with improved savings
• Lessons learned in maintaining a system view

With higher interest rates here, and inflation remaining high, financing costs are taking a toll on building the infrastructure needed to meet growing patient needs. With everything from diagnostics to construction costing more, how are financial leaders coping with the added challenges?

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• What financing options are making the most sense right now?
• How are different organizations creating accounting opportunities to fund new capital projects?
• What role are fundraising and hospital foundations playing in progressing to the build stage?

Delivering on projects, large and small, is an important element in ensuring patients receive the most appropriate care. And while many of us know – or have work on new wings and buildings – there are complicated decisions that need to be made early and often. How we negotiate them have real impacts on project delivery.

In this session, Dr. Alex Mitchell will run through some of the important factors to keep in mind when you are tasked with overseeing a new build, or similar large infrastructure project.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Lessons learned from an outsider on delivering complex projects
• What CFOs and other finance professions need to know from the start to the end of a project
• Why focusing on cost certainty can lead to problems down the road
• Assessing where the challenges will pop up and how to negotiate them
• What needs to change for health systems to deliver infrastructure that meets their needs in a timely and effective manner

The acceleration of change in healthcare finance departments over the past several years has been swift and dramatic. This is true for both large and small hospitals, and whether you are in the East, West, or Central provinces.

Responding to these changes can seem like a never-ending struggle, but there are measured ways to manage the change we are all experiencing.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Strategies others have applied for managing constant changes in their departments
• Little – and Big – things you can do to perform better in your position
• Responding to the unique challenges healthcare faces, where costs can’t be passed on to patients

Hospitals have a larger carbon footprint than most realize. According to the CMAJ healthcare in Canada accounts of 5% of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions, which is higher than aviation. There are certainly energy intensive requirements, such as operating rooms and diagnostic machines, but there are many ways to lower our footprint that won’t impact patient safety.

But it goes beyond environmental, into governance models and being a good corporate citizen in the community.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Why the most important initiative is getting leaders on board
• How to incorporate ESG principles in everything you do – carbon footprint start with the CFO
• Where the easy (and cheap) wins are to gain momentum – first steps?
• Tackling the bigger challenges, such as energy and supply chains – clear KPIs
• What are the critical factors that lead to success
• Lessons learned after 5 years of initiatives

A common concern with hospitals centres around managing older assets. Often, they are stored away, unused, and considered one more asset cost. Hospitals can remarket older assets and sell them to generate additional revenue. But they can also change their lifecycle model to optimize their assets.

Join us for a fireside chat in which several stakeholders will discuss their experiences around optimizing their asset management.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• What does a reliable asset management plan look like, from procurement to remarketing
• How are savings realized, and how can this improve hospital finances
• Where are CFOs seeing the greatest returns on investments and where do they see this going in the future

Staffing shortages continue to accelerate across the healthcare sector, including in finance departments.

And while the situation may seem challenging, there are many opportunities available to drive both retention and recruitment.

In this panel of finance professionals, we will discuss the various initiatives and strategies they have experienced and provide some insight for those looking to advance into leadership positions.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• How healthcare can compete with the private sector for talent, such as creative non-compensation based strategies.
• Should you move to embrace more remote or hybrid models of employment? And the challenges that it could present – time zones, tax implications.
• Leadership development strategies for onboarding and developing the next generation of finance professionals.
• The differences between large and small organizations, particularly around providing adequate resources.
• Managing the transition to CFO: mentors, the learning curve, and building a formalized process.
• What best practices do we have for selecting and training talented employees?

To meet the increasing demand for health care services in the area Niagara Health is building a new hospital that begun in 2014 and has now broken ground, with completion expected in 2028. From planning, to financing, to complex negotiations, we will look at the lessons learned and how you can be better prepared on your next project.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• What lessons were learned already in the project in terms of financing and development?
• How did Niagara Health negotiate with the Ministry, and what would they do differently?
• Where finance should focus their time early in the process?
• How best to engage consultants. What would they do differently to play to each others strengths?