Philip Betbeze, writing for HealthLeaders Media, talks about the "Great De-leveraging" and why organic growth matters now more than ever:
"The good news may be this: You're going to be judged going forward on how well you do the blocking and tackling with operations. If you're offering poor patient care and bad customer service, for example, it's not as easy to cover that up with cheap debt, new glittering patient towers and technology purchases funded on the same, and promises that bad financial and operating performance will be fixed with the new toys. Many hospital CFOs and COOs...are focusing more effort than ever in collecting what they're owed, improving processes, bettering patient care, and other basics that should have been at the forefront of their intellectual capital demands all along—and they're only talking about expansion or acquisitions that can be accomplished organically. Much of this transformation has been forced upon us, it's true. But as the old saying goes, better late than never."The number of "organic" growth opportunities available to the typical acute care hospital is hugely under-appreciated. The critical challenge, though, is more cultural than financial. It requires a change in attitudes and a willingness to see things from fresh perspectives, even if, as Betbeze says, such things were forced upon us.
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