International member spotlight: Syed Mairajuddin Shah leveraged healthcare finance skills to enhance his operational leadership

Syed Mairajuddin Shah, MBBS, MCPS, MBA, CHFP, recently spoke with Betty Hintch, HFMA project manager and international enewsletter editor, about his work in healthcare quality and how he is using his recently attained HFMA certifications to further his goals. Shah is chief operating officer for the four secondary hospitals at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Established in 1985, Aga Khan University Hospital is a private, not-for-profit 750-bed healthcare facility.

Hintch: What is your greatest passion related to your work?

Shah: My greatest passion is to work with my operating teams in delivering the best outcomes. Healthcare quality and patient safety standards are an integral part of my operating philosophy. In addition to my focus on regular business operations, I work closely with the front-line patient care teams including medical, nursing and other health staff members. Our goals are to improve structures, processes, and outcomes through implementation of evidence-based clinical guidelines and conformance to international standards such as ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System, Joint Commission International Accreditation and Safe Care® Healthcare Standards.

I thoroughly enjoy coaching and mentoring my team members with the new learnings and technologies. In addition to my direct operating responsibilities, I also enjoy teaching healthcare quality, patient safety and excellence at both undergraduate and postgraduate academic programs.

Hintch: What are your first impressions of your HFMA Membership?

Shah: I discovered HFMA during my preparatory studies toward the Fellowship of American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) examination last year. During this preparation, I discovered financial management as an opportunity for improvement among the 10 core knowledge areas for the FACHE examination. These courses are well designed, and I was able to complete the Certified Healthcare Financial Professional (CHFP) and the Certified Specialist Accounting & Finance (CSAF) within a few months of joining HFMA as a member.

Hintch: What do you hope to gain from your HFMA international membership?

Shah: In addition to the outstanding educational resources, HFMA provides a platform for joining various professional groups and communities with similar interests in the healthcare financial management areas. Patient access, revenue cycle, costing and managerial accounting, financial leadership, and physician practice revenue management are a few areas that I thoroughly enjoyed. I am looking forward to developing more networking with my HFMA international member colleagues and to earn the credential of FHFMA. HFMA’s certifications are widely accepted as the gold standard in illustrating competency in the field of healthcare finance.

More about Dr. Shah

Dr. Shah is a 1990 medical graduate of Sindh Medical College Karachi, Pakistan. He passed his Membership of College of Physicians and Surgeons (MCPS) in Family Medicine from the College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan in 1995 and completed his MBA from the IQRA University Karachi in 1999. After certifying for the Certified Quality Manager (CQM) from the American Society of Quality in 2001, he was the first Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) in Pakistan in 2002. In addition to his full-time association with the Aga Khan University, Dr. Shah worked as an International Surveyor for the Joint Commission International Accreditation (JCIA), USA for more than a decade.