Financial SWOT Analysis on Copley Hospital’s Budget

Financial Management for Healthcare Administration
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Financial Management for Healthcare Administration
Financial management for healthcare institutions is an important aspect towards guaranteeing the growth of the institution as well as provision of quality healthcare services. Assessing the institution’s budget using SWOT analysis helps in identifying areas for improvement in the administration of healthcare services. In fact, staffing, reimbursement and contemporary healthcare are aspects that an institution such as Copley Hospital should address to enhance effective financial management. More so, engaging stakeholders and developing an applicable budget for Copley Hospital as a healthcare institution will help in developing illustrative ways of enhancing an improved financial environment in healthcare administration.
Financial SWOT Analysis
Financial SWOT analysis on Copley Hospital’s budget helps in identifying how the institution is allocating funds in ensuring effective delivery of healthcare services. The analysis will shed light on the need to create an extensive management environment towards guided financial provision. The SWOT analysis creates a situational understanding on how Copley Hospital healthcare provision is influenced by budgetary allocations in areas such as staffing, reimbursements, contemporary healthcare and stakeholder engagement.
Strengths
A major strength in Copley Hospital’s budget is the adequate allocation on quality patient care provision. The institution has effectively allocated enough funds to quality care provision. The 2022 budget illustrates that the institution has effectively created a kitty to ensure that healthcare provision equipment is maintained and upgraded. Using effective equipment is an important way to ensure that quality healthcare services are provided (Green Mountain Care Board, 2023). In addition, the budget illustrates a strength in adequate funds allocation in all the crucial care provision sectors. Both in patient and out patient sectors have been effectively allocated given that an increase in patients is expected at the healthcare institution. The budget has also ensured that more staffing is added to the healthcare administration and provision processes. For instance, the institution has budgeted to employ a neurologist and podiatrist. The addition of staff helps in easing the healthcare provision load, thus optimizing the financial efficiency of Copley Hospital’s budget.
Weaknesses
Copley Hospital’s budget illustrates that a weakness in addressing uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic exists. The budget has not allocated any funds to address a sudden spike in the number of patients. Since the pandemic occurred, the healthcare sector has been negatively impacted in that there has been a high demand for quality healthcare services. Most healthcare institutions have embraced the use of technology to manage the demand. Copley Hospital’s budget, however, does not consider the possibility of more uncertainties given that the pandemic occurred without any notice (Green Mountain Care Board, 2023). Lack of financial considerations to the uncertainties exposes Copley Hospital to operational issues since the hospital cannot effectively manage to maintain a quality healthcare provision approach. For instance, the budget lacks any consideration to increase the staffing when an uncertainty occurs, which will lead to burn out among the existing staff and consequently provision of low quality healthcare services. The financial budget for Copley Hospital should therefore, incorporate a contingency fund that will cover any uncertainties that occur in healthcare provision.
Opportunities
The healthcare institution budget considers the provided government measures to boost the financial efficiency of the healthcare sector. Through the consideration of the increasing Medicare funds, the budget offers an opportunity to ensure that patients receive quality care. In fact, there has been a considerable increase in the number of aging patients who are actively enrolled under Medicare (Green Mountain Care Board, 2023). Therefore, despite the lack of contingency or uncertainty funds, Copley Hospital’s budget offers an opportunity to create extra funds through the increased government fund using Medicare, thus offering effective contemporary healthcare.
Threats
A threat within Copley Hospital’s budget is the increasing financial pressures. The healthcare institution’s overall operating margin as illustrated in the budget is expected to increase by 1.17%. the increase in the operating margin illustrates that the reimbursements that the hospital has been receiving will not be sufficient to manage the institution’s operations (Green Mountain Care Board, 2023). The financial pressures are caused by the need to implement payment reform, and invest in equipment and infrastructure improvements. More so, the hospital staff is demanding better financial remuneration, thus creating constant financial pressures. Therefore, the financial pressures captured in Copley Hospital budget are a threat to financial stability of the institution.
Analysis
Staffing
Staffing at Copley Hospital, as illustrated in the budget, is sufficient at the moment but faces the risk of staffing instability within the year. The fact that the hospital staff have been requesting more financial stability in their pay indicates that they require constant remuneration improvement. More so, despite the hospital’s budgetary allocation to add more staff, the staff added may not be sufficient to address any uncertaint...