Financial Management in Health Services (Understanding Public Health)

Although financial management is a highly effective means of implementing key policies in health services, it tends to get little attention, being seen as a necessary but unglamorous area of management. This book shows how health care policies and programmes to promote the health of the public can be supported through financial management techniques. No formal understanding of financial systems is necessary since the book begins with the basics of costing and then goes on to examine accounting systems. The book enables the reader to understand financial performance, examine and confidently discuss financial matters, and apply the concepts in their own organization. This book examines: management accounting, financial accounting, and financial control and information systems. Although financial management is a highly effective means of implementing key policies in health services, it tends to get little attention, being seen as a necessary but unglamorous area of management. This book shows how health care policies and programmes to promote the health of the public can be supported through financial management techniques. No formal understanding of financial systems is necessary since the book begins with the basics of costings and then goes on to examine accounting systems. The book enables the reader to understand financial performance, examine and confidently discuss financial matters, and apply the concepts in their own organization. This book examines: Management accounting Financial accounting Financial control and information systems Series Editors: Rosalind Plowman and Nicki Thorogood. A simplistic guide to financial management within health services, this book examines management accounting, financial accounting and financial control and information systems. The book allows the reader to understand financial performance, examine and discuss financial matters and then apply these concepts to their own organisation Reinhold Gruen is a Senior Honorary Lecturer at the Department of Public Health and Policy of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Anne Howarth is a freelance consultant