Financial management and performance of private health institutions in Uganda. Case study: Villa Maria Hospital

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the effect of financial management on the performance of the private health institutions. The performance of private health institutions is an important aspect in the community because it’s through them that the community receives quality health services. Many private health institutions are coming up and this has increased the need for proper control of the finances of private health institutions as a means to improve on the quality of services offered to the community. While there are many private health institutions that have good financial management, a large number still seem to have inadequate financial management systems, this gives a gap on the efficiency especially of the financial resource allocation by the health institution. The study examine the effect of financial management on the performance private health institutions taking a case of Villa Maria Hospital. The study used empirical data acquired through questionnaires, review of the existing documents and interview with the hospital management, accountants, finance committee, medical staff and support staff. The data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to assess the effect of financial management and the performance of private health institutions. The findings of the study show that the main sources of revenues for the health institution are user fees and PHC conditional grants and some external donations. The main challenges to effective financial management were lack of adequate capital, poor inventory management, lack of integrity and lack of participatory budgeting. The analysis showed a strong correlation between financial management and performance of private health institutions. The study therefore concludes and recommends that to ensure efficient and effective financial management in the health institutions the management needs to strengthen the internal control procedures, and policies diversify the sources of revenue, improve on the infrastructure, staff development and monitor and evaluate financial management procedures.