Engage

Financial check-in

The summer months are typically tough financially for our system. Patients and providers take vacations, which impacts volumes. However, we’ve managed to get past those challenging months still exceeding budgeted expectations. July YTD financial statements show our performance is slightly ahead of budget and significantly improved upon 2017’s performance for the first seven months of the year. Volumes through July have generally been positive. Discharges are up 2 percent over prior year overall, with Haymarket Medical Center up an impressive 27 percent. Surgeries at the three acute care hospitals are up 6 percent over prior year and deliveries are up 2 percent over prior year. While the ER at Haymarket is showing growth in visits over prior year, total ER visits are down 2 percent. The cath lab at Prince William continues to grow at an incredible pace, up 21 percent over prior year. 

Operating income is 7 percent better than budgeted overall. Entities that are exceeding budget are Haymarket Medical Center, Novant Health UVA Health System Culpeper Medical Center, the Cancer Center and the Imaging Center. Special recognition to the Cancer Center as it is exceeding budget by 106 percent through July. Prince William Medical Center, The Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) and Novant Medical Group (NMG) are behind budget through seven months. With summer behind us, we can expect volumes to start to increase as they traditionally do.  We need to be ready for volume increases and continue to meet our financial targets.

Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World

From this year’s Novant Health reads selection, Type R: Transformative Resilience for Thriving in a Turbulent World, one story really stuck out to me. The section is titled “The Power of Positive Emotions” and the story goes like this:

“In a famous Native American story, an old Cherokee tells his grandson that inside all people a battle rages between two wolves. One wolf is negativity: anger, sadness, stress, envy, greed, fear arrogance, guild, shame and hate. The other is positivity: joy, gratitude, hope, compassion, faith and, above all, love. The grandson thinks about this for a moment then asks, ‘Well, which wolf wins?’ The grandfather replies, ‘The one you feed.’”

If you don’t have a copy of the book, please request one from your leader! With the enormous amount of change in the industry and in our own system, the topic is timely for all of us.