The Financials of July 2013
By
Leonard Zwelling
Dwain
Morris just released the Enterprise Financial Report for last month and it is
quite interesting. Isn’t it always?
The
deficit in gross patient revenue says to me that the total activity in the patient
care arena was less than was anticipated.
That
net revenue was favorable suggests that we actually got paid more than we
expected anyway.
I
am not sure what the other sources of “operating revenue” are, but they
performed less well than hoped for, but again the operating income was ahead,
which must be a good thing.
The
negative non-operating revenue is concerning as I assume this is the
performance of our investments at a time when the markets are doing well. What happened there?
The
year-to-date numbers don’t look all that good either when compared to budget.
BUT—we are up 5.3% from last year in revenue, however we are spending faster
than we are bringing it in (6.8%) and the fact that the operating expense was
favorable suggests the expense is in areas that could be abbreviated without
negatively affecting clinical care.
So
what’s the bottom line?
I
am no expert but it looks like the clinical faculty is working very hard and we
are actually being paid pretty well for their work. Our investment prowess
seems to have waned again, but mostly we just are spending too much and it
isn’t on the delivery of care.
Then
what the heck is it?
That’s
the 64 dollar question, as my grandmother might say. It looks for all the world
like the clinical operation is being run well and is both productive and
lucrative albeit perhaps not at the level the leadership would like to fulfill
what may be unrealistic budget projections.
The
real questions appear to be in the non-clinical areas of research and administration
where revenue is negligible and spending has to be mission-driven only. Is it?
While
we all appreciate the speed and candor with which Mr. Morris sends us these
numbers, an additional commentary about why they are what they are and what the
plan is to improve them would be both helpful and not within his purview.
That’s the President’s job. What’s the plan for improving these numbers?
In
short, how are we going to make more and spend less?
