Teaching Future Healthcare Financial Managers to Use Evidence

There is a growing movement toward evidence-based management in healthcare. This movement extends to healthcare financial management. However, there are barriers to the use of evidence by healthcare financial managers. These barriers are largely the result of culture (management culture is substantially different from clinical culture) and education. If healthcare financial managers are to become better at generating and using evidence, educators must do a better job of preparing them to do so. If we provide more education regarding the goals of research and about the different types of research methods, then healthcare financial managers can become educated consumers of evidence. If we provide more examples of evidence that has been generated by research in our classes, and if we give the students experience in gathering evidence, we have a chance of increasing the use of evidence-based management in healthcare.