Keys to Sustaining a Financially Vibrant Health System: Quality, Employee Retention, and the ED

November 21, 2008 5:57 pm kconrad Kansas City

The Kansas City LPC partnered with the Heart of America HFMA chapter on 11/20 to address the challenges of sustaining a financially vibrant health system.  Panelists: Scott Glasrud, CFO of KU Medical Center, Scott Kashman, CEO of St. Joseph Medical Center; and Joe Statsi, CFO of St. Luke’s East in Lee’s Summit represented varied organizations, but their approaches were in alignment

  • Reduce employee turnover (manage employee satisfaction and target management development/coaching since the supervisor relationship is the primary reason for turnover/retention) and reduce ED diversion
  • Maintain discipline (tackling process and measurement in a disciplined way is new for today’s culture)
  • Quality drives profit

Other key points:

  • Capital management equates to sustainability
  • Maintaining and enhancing the system’s debt rating is the primary goal since creditworthiness is the key to accessing capital
  • Access to cash and managing debt equates to vibrancy
  • Hospitals must balance strategy related investments with protecting the balance sheet
  • Cash cows must outweigh startups to achieve target margin and revenue growth must exceed inflation
  • When there is a lack of capacity all costs are variable
  • Healthcare is perhaps the only industry where revenues and expenses have no relation and they must be managed separately

    • Please contact kate.conrad@chca.com for more information on this or future programs.   

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