Performance Indicators in a Healthcare Institution

Management teams in organizations use specific vital indicators to know the direction their organizations are taking and thereby, make critical decisions can help steer their organizations in the right directions. In health institutions, for example, a management team should use financial performance indicators as well as an operating indicator to determine the efficiency of their organization’s performance, financial, and operational terms. This case study will analyze the performance and operating indicators at Glen Falls Hospital and learn how the organization management team has used these indicators to make decisions that are meant to make the institution even more successful. Firstly, Glens Falls Hospital is a big 410-bed hospital that is located in Glens Falls, New York (General falls hospital, 2018).  This nonprofit institution serves the local communities of Washington, Warren, Essex, Hamilton, Northern Saratoga, and Rensselaer counties. The institution has about 28 off-campus healthcare facilities in the state, and it is considered the biggest employer in that region with more than 3,000 employees.

Operation indicator in several days a patient is admitted  

One operation indicator the hospital management team should use to understand the efficiency in the institutions’ operations is the average number of days admitted patients stay in the facility before they are finally discharged to go home. The results released by the organization are broken down into different categories as follows:

	Number Medicare Inpatients	Average Length of Stay
Cardiovascular Surgery	90	3.71
Cardiology	546	4.35
Neurology	264	6.45
Medicine	1,053	5.23
Surgery	258	10.07

From the table above, it is clear that the average number of days patients stay admitted in the hospital are very few. This can be attributed to the fact that healthcare providers in the hospitals are highly qualified and that they offer high-quality healthcare services to their patients. In the category of cardiovascular surgery and cardiology, for example, the average number of days patients are admitted in the institution is about 3.71 and 4.35 respectively. These numbers of days increase slightly to about 6.45 days and 5.23 days for neurology and medicine respectively (Free profile website, 2019). This shows that patients undergoing dangerous health operations and procedures spend less than a week in this hospital, and this indicates efficiency on the side of the hospital (General falls hospital, 2018). However, the number of days surgical patients stay in the hospital is about 10.07 days and this is considerably high. The institution management team should investigate this department to look on to the reasons why patients are taking so long to be discharged and then come up with a solution to the issue.

Performance indicators

Performance indicator	$
Gross Patient Revenue	$1,085,418,780
Non-Patient Revenue	$20,698,991
Total Revenue	$1,106,117,771
Net Income (or Loss)	$-30,230,743

Performance indicators such as financial receivables and profit or loss realized indicate the financial health of an organization, as well as its ability to meet its financial obligation and finance its operations (Free profile website, 2019). From the table above, two indicators both on revenue received, the first indicator is the gross patient revenue, and the second one is non-patient revenue is indicated as $1,085,418,780 and $ 20,698,771 respectively. When they are matched with expenses incurred by the organization, it shows the organization made an operating deficit of about $ -30,230,743. This shows that the costs incurred are much more than receivables (General falls hospital, 2018). For this reason, it will be necessary for the institution’s board to come up with ways that can help increase revenues from non-patient because this indicator is lagging. This indicator can be improved by soliciting for more donations. 

References

Epstein, B., & Turner, M. (2015). The nursing code of ethics: its value, its history. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(2)

General falls hospital. (2018). Consolidated Financial Statements For The Year 2017 AND 2017.

Retrieved from https://hitconsultant.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/KPMG-2017-Audited-Financials.pdf

Free profile website. (2019). Glens Falls Hospital Glens Falls, NY  12801. Retrieved from

https://www.ahd.com/free_profile/330191/Glens_Falls_Hospital/Glens_Falls/New_York/