HSA 505 week 10 Discussion

Your hospital has just been told that all of your cardiovascular surgeons are transferring their practice to a competitive hospital beginning next year. What type of financial impact could this have on the hospital? How would this affect a forecast of volume?

If my hospital loses all our cardiovascular surgeons I am going to definitely see a decline in my patient volume which would cause a decrease in total cost since we would require lesser resources. There will be a dramatic change in service patterns, projected revenues, and expenses. I would need to focus more on their cost variable to maximize the ability to control costs due to the volume change. In the long run through development or termination of certain programs the volume may change and most hospitals indirectly assume while developing their budget.

If a hospital loses a whole service line like cardiovascular surgery it will see a decline in patient volume. This decrease in volume will also see a decrease in total cost as lesser resources are needed. This foreseeable but uncontrollable force may dramatically alter service patterns, projected revenues and expenses. In this situation where volume is expected to significantly vary, management may try to make more of their costs variable to maximize their ability to control costs, given volume changes. Although, in the long run, through the development or discontinuation of certain programs volume may be changed, most hospitals implicitly assume while developing their statistics budget that they cannot affect their overall volume during the budgetary period.