Terrible, awful, scary and very, very bad

    When it comes to the University of Miami officials, the trends and statistics below are terrible, awful, scary and very, very bad.
  
But even worse?
  
Most Miami-Dade thought leaders, journalists and elected officials would have no idea of their meaning, or importance.
  
Basically, because their grasp of healthcare finances is probably on par with their understanding of the Large Hadron Collider, or their reptilian brain.
    So....
   
What do the data say?
      1. UM bought paid $260 million for a fiscally sick hospital when it purchased the Cedars Medical Center from the for profit Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in December of 2007.

      2. Since then, the 560-bed hospital's condition has spiraled downward from guarded to critical.

      3. It's a good thing UM's Med School officials aren't running the U's football team.

   Anyhow...
  
One can only hope UM President Donna Shala was invited to the party HCA threw after UM bought their failing hospital – because it had to have been one hell of a celebration.
  
Now...
  
The comparative data below are based on adjusted patient days , which are:
    - 
A standard baseline used throughout the healthcare industry (see below).
    -  A more understandable and accurate way to track various hospital dollars
      
and patient volumes that usually run into incomprehensible millions (and even billions).
   
Oh yes.
   
For comparison, I've included HCA's 412-bed Kendall hospital (as a poster child
of obscene health care charges and profits) -- plus similar numbers for Jackson's
system as well as those for the average Florida hospital during the past five years. 
    The Good News?

    T
he Hurricanes kicked the crap out of Virgina last Saturday.
     The Bad News?
     No one in any position of leadership in Miami-Dade will grasp the profound
importance of any of the data below.


                                     2004              2007                2008 
Patient Bed                                                               Cedars Now
Occupancy Rate                                                      UM Owned
Cedars HCA              61.2%           43.7%              24.5%
Kendall HCA             44.1%           49.3%              49.5%
Jackson System      65.0%           62.3%              63.3%
State                            69.5%           58.2%              57.3%
                                                                                                               
 04-08

Adj. Patient                                                                                          change
Days – APD
Cedars HCA             147,138         110,317           61,038                (58.5%)
Kendall HCA             93,923           103,100          104,838              11.6%
Jackson System      463,023         639,385          655,186              41.5%
State                           16,481,476    17,274,158    18,856,334         14.4%

Gross Patient
Charges Per APD
Cedars HCA              $5,168            $6,589            $7,507                 45.3%
Kendall HCA             $4,056            $9,352            $10,681               163.3%
Jackson System      $3,534            $5,713            $5,929                  67.7%
Avg. State                  $5,360            $6.825            $7,177                  33.9%

Net Patient
Revenue Per APD
Cedars HCA               $1,381            $1,517            $1,590                 15.1%
Kendall HCA              $1,276            $1,932            $2,086                  63.5%
Jackson System*      $1,176*          $1,593*           $1,766*                50.2%
Avg. State                   $1,484 $         $1,692            $1,787                  20.4%

Operating
Expenses Per APD
Cedars HCA               $1,209             $1,579             $1,788                 47.9%
Kendall HCA               $1,121            $1.724              $1,791                59.7%
Jackson System        $1,662            $2,220              $2,330                40.2%
Avg. State                    $1,493             $1,725              $1,774               18.8%

Bottom Line
Surplus (Loss) Per APD
Cedars HCA                $136.34           $7.05                ($186.03)          (236.8%)
Kendall HCA                $159.49           $166.81            $313.15             96.8%
Jackson System         $16.25             $42.06               $140.31             775%
Avg. State                     $57.23             $98.14               $48.01              (15.8%)

*Excludes Jackson Tax Revenues for Patient Care

APD - Adjusted Patient Days: a standard baseline used throughout
the healthcare industry which includes both inpatient and outpatient
volumes – thus facilitating an accurate comparison of different hospitals,
or hospital groups.

SOURCE: Agency for Health Care Administration

Feel free to email me at johndegroot@live.com 

 

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