Same-Day Surger Manager: Use these reports to monitor surgery stats
Use these reports to monitor surgery stats
By Stephen W. Earnhart, MS
CEO
Earnhart & Associates
League City, TX
If your facility is open as you read this, congratulations! There are a number of freestanding facilities that didn't make it through the past "dark years." Not quite sure what else to the call the past three years, but not a lot of points of light came through. Many hospitals had cutbacks and staffing "brown outs" (the staffing equivalent of electrical rolling brown out.) So if you are reading this column, that is great news. Good to see you are still here.
I am a huge advocate of management "report cards" for hospital and freestanding units. They are very simple to establish, they allow for most staff members to participate, and they offer a reliable and accurate portrayal of how your department or facility is doing from several different angles.
This report, again, is simple to use and is really a great way to get unmotivated staff members involved in the operational side of the business. You have to be willing to share some information, but there is nothing wrong with your staff understanding the viability and health of your operations. Look at the millions of employees in publicly traded businesses in the United States. Those individuals merely need to go online to see all kinds of information about how those companies are doing in the stock reports. So, secrecy isn't what it used to be. Business transparency is good.
Start with your revenue. Everyone has a budget. How much money are you supposed to bring in each year, month, and week? Set it up in an Excel or Numbers spreadsheet for each month. Now put in how much you actually collected. Rarely do they jive. Why didn't they? Unplanned surgeon vacation? Falling out with a payer? Jot down the explanation. Many times there may be a difference or "variance" between the two that can be explained. While you are doing this, what is the percentage of the change? Often there can be a lot of money difference, but when you look at the actual percentage difference, it is not all that dramatic. Add that figure to your equation.
You will create something like this:
Keep your explanations short and to the point. This is not a novel.
Since you are looking at the revenue, you need to look at your cases that were budgeted. Use the same format as revenue:
It actually starts to become fun. Now, dig deeper! What specialty are you doing more of? Track it like this:
Now, where is the money being spent from your revenue? Find out by going through the major expenditures. There are many things you spend money on each month. There are often too many to track here, so pick the items on your budget by line on the budget. Your major "line items" are often supplies and personnel. Add them just like you did the above.
Finish it off with something like this:
In other words, what percent of your income or collections is spent on personnel cost? Supplies? What you want to measure is at your fingertips.
Add another line here that measures how much of your income is spent on staff education, conferences, and publications. Take this information to whomever you report to and use it as justification to allocate more funds to staff education.
If your administrator or dreaded VP doesn't share this information with you, then ask to be involved next month. I have never turned down a staff member who wanted to be part of running a facility. Everyone wins! [Earnhart & Associates is a consulting firm specializing in outpatient surgery development and management. Contact Earnhart at Earnhart & Associates, League City, TX. Phone: (512) 297.7575. E-mail: [email protected]. Web: www.earnhart.com.]
If your facility is open as you read this, congratulations! There are a number of freestanding facilities that didn't make it through the past "dark years."Subscribe Now for Access
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