HIM 660 Module 10 Reflection Example

Reviewed by Delia Ravenscroft, MSN, RN

This HIM 660 Module 10 Reflection sample considers how a course in strategic planning and financial management changed one health information leader's work. It was written for SNHU HIM 660 (HIM-660), whose tenth module closes the term for MS Health Information Management learners with a personal account of what changed. The composite director at a two-hospital system near Charleston, West Virginia, starts with an admission: budgets used to feel like something the finance office did to the department. The entry names three shifts, learning to speak in the chief financial officer's terms, trusting a figure only after trying hard to break it and counting the patient that a financial model leaves out, and it ends with a hard promise about the documentation pilot and a skill the director still lacks.

CourseHIM 660 HIM Strategic Planning and Financial Management
ModuleModule 10
Paper typegraduate reflection on learning strategic and financial planning for HIM
LengthAbout 360 words, 3 pages
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolSouthern New Hampshire University
ProgramMS Health Information Management
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for HIM 660 Module 10

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Module Ten Reflection

The Budget Was Never Theirs

Before this course, I thought of the budget as something finance handed down and then used against us each month. When contract coding ran $464,000 over, I braced for the meeting instead of explaining the numbers. I now see that I had left the budget to others because I did not speak its language, and that the department paid for my silence.

What this page is doingResentment of the budget is the entry's opening admission.
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The first shift is that I now talk in our chief financial officer's terms. When I recalculated the labor variance at actual volume, the overrun shrank from $230,000 to about $55,000, and the real story became a staffing story. That one flexible budget did more for the department's standing than years of saying we were busy. I bring cost per discharge, unbilled dollars and net present value to every conversation now.

The second is that I trust a number only after trying to break it. My first estimate of the documentation program looked excellent. Then the sensitivity test showed it loses money if the case mix gain is half what I assumed or arrives a year late. Hyndman and Athanasopoulos (2021) advise reporting forecasts as ranges, and Begun and Heatwole (1999) warned that planning grows complacent when no one challenges its assumptions. Phasing the program came directly from attacking my own estimate.

The third is that a model leaves people out unless I put them in. The letter from a patient billed for a scan we failed to authorize changed my denial plan. Lower-income patients carry the heaviest burden of denials (Horný et al., 2025), and our valley has many of them. A patient measure now sits on the scorecard because I learned that the write-off line hides who actually pays.

What this page is doingEach shift is pinned to a milestone and a reading.
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My hardest commitment is to present the pilot's result to the chief financial officer exactly as it comes in, even if it shows the documentation program should not expand. I proposed the program, and I want it to work. I still need to become comfortable defending numbers to executives who know finance better than I do, so I have asked our finance analyst to review my next two presentations before I give them.

What this page is doingA promise with personal risk, plus outside help, ends it.
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References

Begun, J., & Heatwole, K. B. (1999). Strategic cycling: Shaking complacency in healthcare strategic planning. Journal of Healthcare Management, 44(5), 339-352. https://doi.org/10.1097/00115514-199909000-00005

Horný, M., Yu, O., & Hoagland, A. (2025). Claim denials: Low-income patients from disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups experienced the largest burdens. Health Affairs, 44(6), 707-715. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2024.01277

Hyndman, R. J., & Athanasopoulos, G. (2021). Forecasting: Principles and practice (3rd ed.). OTexts. https://otexts.com/fpp3/

What the HIM 660 Module 10 instructions ask for

HIM 660 ends with a personal reflection on what strategic and financial planning taught you. About a page is typical, with APA 7 sources only where a reading actually moved your thinking. Skip the module-by-module recap. Name the handful of ways your planning, budgeting or decisions now differ, and anchor each in a moment from your milestones, for instance a variance you recalculated or a sensitivity test that changed your mind. Own a belief or habit you arrived with that no longer holds up. Close with a promise someone could check, like a result you will present or an indicator you will watch, and name a skill you still need to build.

How this HIM 660 Module 10 reflection example is built

Kanawha Ridge Health's director starts by confessing that budgets felt like something finance did to the department. Three shifts follow: the flexible budget that turned a $230,000 overrun into about $55,000 and a staffing story; a sensitivity test that exposed the documentation program's fragile assumption, read through Hyndman and Athanasopoulos on ranges and Begun and Heatwole on complacent planning; and a patient's letter that, with Horný and colleagues' evidence on who bears denials, added a patient measure to the scorecard. The HIM 660 reflection closes with a promise to report the pilot honestly even if it ends the program, and with a plan to have the finance analyst review two presentations.

Where the HIM 660 Module 10 rubric puts the points

Graders of the HIM 660 closing entry look for shifts in practice tied to specific course work, candor about what the writer believed at the start, sources that explain growth instead of padding it, attention to the people behind financial choices and a forward promise suited to the writer's job. Strong entries show the writer can now carry financial tools into real conversations with executives and can question their own estimates. A promise that carries some personal cost, such as reporting a result that undercuts the writer's own proposal, makes the growth believable. Clear organization, a voice both personal and professional and correct APA 7 for any citation round out higher marks. Enthusiasm for the course alone earns little.

HIM 660 Module 10 help: the mistakes that cost points

Final reflections in this course tend to lose points by summarizing each module, praising the course, citing sources unconnected to any change or ending with a promise to keep learning about finance. A reflection that admits no earlier misconception can also read as thin. If your prompt asks about program outcomes, leadership growth or your career in health information instead, send it with a summary of your final plan and a note on your role, and the entry will be shaped around your own milestones. One number that changed your mind is worth including. Our HIM 660 reflections start from a real misconception and end with a commitment that someone could check.

Get HIM 660 Module 10 written to your instructions

Send the HIM 660 Module 10 prompt, a summary of your final plan and a note on your role. The reflection will connect two or three shifts to specific milestone moments, admit an earlier belief that changed and close with a verifiable commitment and a skill you are still building. Expect it within two days; the first one costs nothing. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.

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HIM 660 Module 10 questions, answered

Where can I find a free HIM 660 Module 10 Reflection sample?

This page has the complete HIM 660 Module 10 reflection, in which an HIM director learns to speak in finance terms, test every estimate and count patients in the denial plan.

What should a reflection on strategic and financial planning cover?

A few concrete ways your planning or budgeting changed, each linked to course work, a belief you revised along the way and a promise you can keep in your current job.

Can a reflection mention numbers from the final project?

Yes. A specific figure, such as a variance that shrank after a volume adjustment, shows exactly what changed in your thinking.

How many sources should the HIM 660 reflection use?

Usually one to three in APA 7, used only where a reading helped change your view, so the entry stays personal.

What makes a strong commitment in a final reflection?

One that someone could verify and that carries some risk, such as presenting a pilot result honestly even if it argues against your own proposal.