Discussion Forum 1
Lude Tai
Florida International University

Individual Discussion Question (write two short paragraphs):
Have you had similar experiences so far in your career? Honestly, I just had several months’ internship experience in the hospital and Guangdong Province Health Department. However, in my opinion, administrative staff or finance people usually don’t understand what physicians are doing. We know that physicians normally work solo, and make decisions individually, which means they usually don’t have the tendency to view and solve problems based on a large-scale vision. They also have little knowledge of finance, but they need to know how to interact with patients. When I was an intern in a nursing department, communicating with patients was a common thing for me every day. I needed to understand their demands and concerns. Better clinical outcomes would show if there is good interaction between medical staff and patients. For finance people, they don’t need to communicate with patients. Instead, they focus on the future to help hospitals develop better and make more benefits. When I was an intern in the Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs of the Guangdong Province Health Department, I knew that administrative staff is in charge of hospitals to ensure the implementation of basic drug policy among hospitals. I noticed that they usually got feedback from leaders of each hospital, and they checked the outcome reports submitted by hospital. There was little collaboration and communication with clinical staff. I wonder if there is a difference when the two sides collaborate together.
What take-aways are you able to derive from this article?
After reading the article, I learned about the differences between CFOs and CMOs because the nature of their work. To establish strong partnerships with physicians, finance officers