Few health care finance texts are written for clinical professionals such as advanced practice nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, and physical therapists who are involved in team-based practice. This work is intended to serve as the text for a graduate course on health care finance for such clinicians.
Nurse educator Mary A. Paterson has organized the book into seven sections that are further subdivided into chapters. Each chapter features chapter objectives, a list of chapter concepts, fairly rigorous discussion questions, and bibliographic references. Each section includes case studies specific to the chapters. Case study examples range from prison health care spending to estimating project costs for a new electronic records system.
The book is illustrated with some simple but well-designed tables and charts. The index is a scant three pages, but the table of contents is fairly detailed, and the book is short enough to skim through easily. The author also provides an instructor's manual (not seen) that supplements this text with sample syllabi, problem set solutions, and instructional slides.
Health professions students and practitioners who are interested in learning more about health care financing in general and ambulatory care practice management financing in particular will appreciate this work. This readable and well-organized book is recommended for health sciences libraries that support graduate programs for various health professionals.