Resource Management in Primary Care

Every for-profit organization desires to attain profitability in its business operations. Profitability enables these organizations to remain in business and outlines the long-term organizational agenda. Therefore, the significance of profitability in business maintenance underpins its necessity in any organizational setup. Healthcare systems as well require to be profitable in their operationalization to enable them to deliver quality and effective services. This paper seeks to identify and discuss conditions impacting revenue collection in an emergency department.

Conditions that may impact revenue in an emergency department include increases in supplies to the emergency department as well as decreases in the number of patients visiting the emergency department. Supply increases translate to more funds being channeled to avail the necessary equipment and tools utilized in the healthcare delivery processes. This will eventually depress the net revenue. An increase in supplies may be warranted by internal problems such as inappropriate use of the available supplies, inappropriate ordering of tests, presentation of complex clinical conditions, and an increase in the patient population (Bai & Anderson, 2016). In all these scenarios, there is a relative increase in the number of supplies being utilized, which surpasses the estimated budget and reduces revenue.

Increases or decreases in the number of patients as well have a significant impact on the revenue collected. The emergency department earns revenue from each presenting patient. In most cases, an increase in patient population results in exponential revenue increases. Decreasing the patient population, on the other hand, will decrease revenue. Conditions that may cause increases in the patient population include but are not limited to public health problems such as disease outbreaks, health promotional activities that improve communities’ health-seeking behavior, and enhanced service delivery of the hospital and its staff. In all these instances, the patient population is remarkedly increased, and thus the hospital collects revenue (McKenna et al., 2019). Conversely, such conditions as poor service delivery accustomed to poor quality and ineffectiveness may significantly reduce the patient population, thus reducing the amount obtainable from patient visitation.

Hospitals do strive to maximize their revenue collections while minimizing their expenses. Minimization of hospital expenses can be achieved by a concerted approach that ensures accountability and responsible utilization of the available resources. Revenue collection enhancement can be achieved by attracting more patients to the hospital. This requires a concerted approach that ensures quality and effective services are delivered by the hospital and its staff. Higher revenues and profitability ensure the hospital remains in business.

References

Bai, G., & Anderson, G. (2016). A More Detailed Understanding Of Factors Associated With Hospital Profitability. Health Affairs, 35(5), 889-897. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1193

McKenna, P., Heslin, S., Viccellio, P., Mallon, W., Hernandez, C., & Morley, E. (2019). Emergency department and hospital crowding: causes, consequences, and cures. Clinical And Experimental Emergency Medicine, 6(3), 189-195. DOI: 10.15441/ceem.18.022

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