Workforce
Healthcare Finance for Operational Leaders
Hospitals and healthcare systems are facing unprecedented financial pressures, from shrinking reimbursements to rising operational costs. For leaders, understanding the language of finance isn’t just helpful – it’s essential. Smart, informed decisions rely on this knowledge, and without it, leaders risk losing credibility with finance teams and executive decision-makers.
This course focuses on financial management and accounting principles tailored for the healthcare industry, giving leaders the knowledge they need to understand how finance works in hospital systems and make decisions that lessen the impact of these pressures.
The 6-week virtual Healthcare Finance for Operational Leaders course is designed to give healthcare professionals a holistic understanding of the forces shaping healthcare finance. Participants will learn how healthcare systems are paid, strengthen their financial literacy, and gain practical tools and resources to make decisions that drive strong financial performance.
This program goes beyond theory – it’s built to increase financial literacy in practical, applicable ways, equipping leaders with frameworks, tools, and strategies they can immediately apply in their organizations. Participants will learn to analyze financial challenges, make more informed decisions, and access the right resources to support sustainable operations.
What sets this program apart is its focus on preparing leaders to step confidently into influence. By strengthening their financial acumen, healthcare professionals will be better positioned to shape conversations at the executive table, respond effectively to today’s financial pressures, and help guide their organizations toward long-term stability and growth.
The goal of the program is clear: to empower healthcare leaders with the financial expertise they need to not only solve immediate challenges but to become visionary leaders who drive meaningful impact and real outcomes for their organizations and communities.
Learning experience:
Comprehensive curriculum: Build the financial knowledge and practical skills healthcare leaders need. This program equips you with proven concepts, frameworks, and tools to make smarter decisions and future-proof your organization.
Expert instructor: Learn directly from an experienced healthcare executive who brings real-world insights from both rural and urban C-suite hospital, health system, and institute leadership.
Interactive live sessions: Engage in dynamic online sessions and expand your network by connecting with accomplished healthcare professionals from across the state.
Target audience: Healthcare professionals and leaders, public health professionals, and finance leaders, who are looking to expand their knowledge and expertise of healthcare finance.
Over the six sessions, participants will gain working knowledge of a wide variety of finance topics, covered through an in-depth presentation, breakout sessions, and/or activities. Through each of these areas, helpful tools and context setting are woven in – increasing practical application in every session.
Through the program, operational leaders will gain working knowledge and confidence in:
Finance basics
- Distinguishing between finance and accounting
- An overview of the main financial statements and how to use them to understand the overall health of a healthcare entity
- Reviewing key words/phrases used in decision making: direct, indirect, contribution margin, materiality
- Outlining types of healthcare entities
- Demystifying healthcare acronyms – organizations and agencies that exist to support healthcare entities
- Creating transparency of decision making – what structures, roles, and committees typically exist in healthcare entities
Balance sheet management
- Embracing the tension between managing the income statement and balance sheet simultaneously
- Reviewing types of assets and liabilities – what they are and how they affect decision-making
Accounting for the care environment
- Understanding the parameters of capital; categories and thresholds
- Anchoring the concepts of depreciation and amortization as essential components of a financial analysis
Levers of the income statement: money in and money out
- Introducing key expense ratios for leaders to proactively manage as they scale
- Amplifying the importance of managing labor efficiently
- Simplifying core concepts of how hospitals, health systems, and clinics are paid
- Clarifying stages of the revenue cycle and how each layer affects performance
Planning for the future
- Outlining budget strategies – for individual departments and entire systems
- Developing tools to communicate about long term, medium term, and short-term financial projections as part of budgeting
- Creating insight for operational leaders on organizational-wide trends, and how their part fits into the whole
Decision making tools
- Learning to use proformas, SBARs, presentations, and analysis to paint the picture of performance
- Emphasizing the importance and utility of routine operational reports (financial, labor, statistics)
Virtual weekly sessions, Tuesdays 10:10 – 11:50 AM.
February 24 – March 31, 2026
$750 per person. Group discounts are available for 3+ attendees from the same organization.
Program fee includes course materials and a certificate of completion.
A digital Certificate of Completion will be awarded to participants upon successful completion of the program. Successful completion of the program will be based on attendance of virtual sessions.
Hilary Whittington
Hilary Whittington is a passionate, articulate healthcare leader who brings energy to the complex challenge of transforming care delivery. With financial and operational expertise, she uses strategic vision to drive growth and sustainability. As President of MultiCare’s Pulse Heart Institute, she leads strategy and operations for cardiovascular services provided across Pulse’s provider enterprise, ambulatory, and hospital-based settings. She previously served as Chief Financial Officer for MultiCare’s institutes (including Pulse Heart Institute), where she built frameworks and managed financial sustainability alongside aggressive growth objectives.
Hilary spent nine years as Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer of one of Washington’s largest critical access hospitals, and started her career in public accounting working with rural hospitals throughout the Northwest. She’s passionate about turning financial data into stories that help decision-makers work together toward shared goals. This approach drives her work with the Institute for Healthcare Finance – and partnership with WHS through leading “Finance for Operational Leaders” and the Healthcare Executive Leadership Program, where she teaches “CFO as Chief Storyteller” modules.
Hilary lives on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula with her husband and two young sons, where she enjoys exploring the woods and spending time outdoors. Her family has a love for aviation and treasures their adventures seeing the Northwest’s stunning landscapes from above.