The upheaval in the capital markets and the weakening of the U.S. economy are continuing to buffet hospitals with lower investment returns, limited growth, ongoing capital needs, and significant financial stress to healthcare organizations of all types and sizes. Spending must be carefully managed and targeted as cash and capital capacity decline; strategies must be revised accordingly. Hospitals must be disciplined and rigorous in assessing the real feasibility of their strategic plans.

This case study will help hospital and health system executives assure the affordability of their strategies and establish an ongoing process to monitor actual performance against projections.

The session has the following learning objectives:

- Understand the concept of organizational capital capacity and how it is calculated
- Learn how capital capacity varies as a function of management initiatives (e.g., volume/revenue growth and operating expense control) and external market events
- Identify how to quantify the real impact on the organizations financial position of deferral or trimming of specific facility, service line, or physician-related strategies
- Determine sources of risk present in the financial plan and how to assess and manage those risks
- Learn how to develop a comprehensive financial plan that is fully integrated with the organizations strategies
- Apply a best practice approach to monitoring continued viability of the plan vis--vis actual performance

Given the current demanding economic conditions, senior healthcare executives must be developing and maintaining a real strategic financial plan and assuring that their organizations achieve the financial results that measure up to the plans projected results. This is no longer a nice to have, but rather a must have competency for all senior executives. Access to capital is, more than ever, dependent on the underlying creditworthiness of the organization. This session provides executives with the information they need to know to be proactive in the financial management of their organizations.