Financial performance at hospitals and health systems has reached an all-time low. Operating expense growth continues to outpace revenue growth—with no end in sight. While leaders must rein in operating expenses, topline revenue growth remains a critical component of financial sustainability.
Unfortunately, inpatient volumes have stagnated and even healthy outpatient growth often fails to generate sufficient revenue to fill the gap. Hospital and health system leaders need to re-ignite the growth engine to complement cost reduction efforts and achieve sustainable margins.
Sustaining this level of revenue growth will require organizations to focus across the following three primary goals:
- Reducing avoidable revenue erosion to ensure appropriate payment for each patient encounter
- Increasing patient volumes to win market share in both the inpatient and outpatient settings
- Exploring opportunities to diversify into new revenue streams
Our three-part Reigniting the Growth Engine series walks through ten strategies to guide hospital and health system leaders on the road to effective long-term revenue growth. The research explains the forces behind today’s margin challenge, provides a framework for comprehensive and efficient revenue growth, and features case studies of best-in-class organizations.