“The bars are going in the right direction,” said one CFO, and that summarized the financial presentations of 37 leading healthcare hospitals and systems at the Seventh Annual Non-Profit Health Care Investor Conference in New York May 17 and 18. The conference was sponsored by Citigroup, the American Hospital Association, and HFMA. By and large, the presenting organizations showed modest growth in margin and cash flow, along with plans for new construction to facilitate increased volume and investment in medical and information technology.
In addition, the systems emphasized their focus on clinical quality improvement, with many highlighting performance related to broad-based patient safety and quality indicators, along with specific projects to improve quality. However, keynote speaker Brent James, MD, M.Stat Executive Director of the Institute for Health Care Delivery Research of Intermountain Health Care, strongly asserted the need for a sea change in the approach to quality of care. “American health care gets it right 54.9 percent of the time,” he said, referring to quality and appropriateness of care. “I wonder what we could achieve if we got it right 98 percent of the time.” He challenged hospital leaders to manage the core business of clinical care using the same approach as they use to manage business functions, creating a “shared baseline” that will transform patient care from “craft-based practice” to “profession-based practice.” Hospitals that make that transformation, he said, would be the ones able to demonstrate strong financial performance.
