Essay Sample on Financial Struggles in Health Facilities: Understanding Challenges and Solutions

Any health facility that experiences financial constraints is usually under pressure to uphold quality, integrity as well as poor patient services accorded. Compared to hospitals with well structured commercial systems and protocols in place, they are bound to suffer competition and even the validity of patient handling. A couple of measures and robust financial arrangements need to be put in place to avoid such shortcomings in the hospital. Similarly, there has to be a checks and balances system that ensures these laid down procedures are getting followed. With this in place, the hospice management needs to have quality indicators to monitor the effectiveness of the measures.

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Managing revenue in a hospice is not a cup of tea. It needs strategic planning, discipline, insight, and effective planning. Revenue management is the ultimate test of a good leader, and a lot of self-control and discernment is needed. Also, on that note, a good leader should be conversant with inter-departmental affiliation and liaise with them on how to minimize expenses and maximize profits.

To effectively manage a revenue cycle in a hospice, one should be well versed in the activities and budgets of the same. For instance, you should be well aware of the consumption, opening stock, closing stock, stock-outs, and wastage. A revenue cycle tends to revolve around the areas as mentioned above, and the better managed they are, the less the wastage. Risk assessment should also be taken and ascertained what the most probable cause of wastage in the department is.

For instance, the department should have enough stock to last them at least three months to reduce cases of stock-outs, which might subsequently lead to losses and negative feedback from the client (Limbscomb, 2019). Management of revenue in a single department also needs to incorporate the consumption of different staff individually. For instance, there is staff who are known to consume more material to give output as compared to others. Such kind of team should get expertly trained and monitored. Alternatively, you can relocate such staff to another department where they are most fit. Using position control, one can use the staff with the most conservancy and control skills to be in charge of others and direct them on the benefits of minimizing costs.

Some of the indicators that can be used to monitor the revenue cycle daily include:

• Consumption of medical equipment
• Service expenses
• Power consumption
• Staff wages
• Number of walk-in patients
• Revenue lost through insurances
• Bad debts written over
• Wastage of stock
• Accrued interest on debts
• Petty cash

Every single aspect is a quality indicator of correct revenue management. For instance, having too much petty cash that has not gotten banked is bound to be lost on wastage and unnecessary purchases. Similarly, having too much power consumption with a minimal number of walk-in patients is also likely to affect the hospice revenue negatively. Staff wages and several working hours worked are directly proportional, and overworking the staff might reduce production and, consequently, the tax. Checking for these quality indicators in beneficial to the company as it helps management ascertain the loopholes and work on correcting them. Moreover, these quality indicators can get used in making significant financial decisions and budgets for the hospice.

References

Limbscomb, M. (2019). Exploring Evidence-based Practice: Debates and Challenges in Nursing (pp. 190 - 201). London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.