Financial Management in Healthcare
The fates of hospitals and physicians are closely intertwined these days. In fact, the practice behaviors of physicians are crucial for determining the financial success of a hospital. Discuss the impact of physician practice patterns on the results of the hospital operating budget and capital budget. Provide specific examples to support your answer.
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ANTHONY:
hospitals and physicians are very closely intertwined. The success and failure of a physician will be felt throughout the facility. Most people, associate a hospital with the physicians since the physicians determine what is done for the patients. Most physicians will follow similar practices. If a physician or group of physicians do a poor job in the hospital then less people will go to that hospital as it is seen as not as good as other hospitals. I hear this excuse all the time when transporting patients to hospitals. Many want to go to a specific hospital because they feel they get better care. Other times a patient will tell me “I don’t want to go there because they killed my family member” or “My family member died there”. The performance
Additionally, some physicians come at a higher cost than others. The hospital may need to budget more money to pay for specific physicians to operate in the hospital. The Equipment that a physician needs or wants will need to be budgeted. The equipment will be budgeted into the capital budget, where as the physicians cost to operate and disposable equipment will be put into the operating budget. An example of this is a cardiac cath lab. An interventional cardiologist needs to be on staff. The cath lab needs to be built and staffed. Special equipment will need to be purchased. Specific practices will need to be developed and practiced. The hospital will need to go through an accreditation process. All of this will cost large amounts of money that will need to be put into the budget.