John Kurvink, CPA, MHA, serves as Chief Financial Officer and Manager of Finance for Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Hospital District.
On November 13th, John will serve on the panel "Can Costs Still be Taken Out of Organizations? Core Thoughts of 2020" at Becker's 8th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place November 11-13, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and John's session, click here.
Question: What is the single most important thing you need to do in your role?
John Kurvink: I think listening is the most important thing I need to do in my role. Listening to staff, peers, your Board and taxpayers gives you insights and perspectives that you don't get if you are doing all the talking. That's why God gave us two ears and one mouth.
Q: If you acquired $10 million dollars with no strings attached today, how would you invest or spend it?
JK: We have an acute shortage of physicians in our area. I would invest the $10M to create an endowment fund and use the earnings to fund incentives to bring in young physicians such as paying down their debt or subsidizing their practice space costs.
Q: There is a lot to improve upon in healthcare. Of the many issues that hold your attention, what is the one you consider exceptionally imperative and urgent?
JK: It seems our system still hasn't aligned the interests of all the stakeholders. It often seems that we continue to operate in silos trying to optimize our particular area of focus/accountability often at the expense of systemic improvement.
Q: What one specific competency do you believe up-and-coming healthcare leaders would benefit from strengthening outside the classroom?
JK: Managing politics is something to be learned on the job, not in the classroom. I've seen politics derail good ideas and initiatives so being able to navigate around or through the politics in the system to achieve objectives is a skill that continues to be highly sought after.