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Seminar Topics

Solving the Devil's Triangle

Intended to demonstrate the steps necessary to increase patient census and build improved customer service, this seminar shows how these goals can be reached by improving the relationship between the physicians, the board of directors, and the administrative team of a hospital.

During the course of the seminar, Mr. Schwartz describes, in great detail, the methodology he first developed for use in Hospital Corporation of America hospitals in the early 1980s and has utilized successfully in numerous hospitals ranging from 120 beds to 900 beds over the past twenty years. 

The seminar includes a generous interaction with the participants and can best be executed as a half day seminar, although it can be accommodated in time slots of a minimum of one hour or up to two days.

Completing a Facility Plan without Consultants and Architects

Since 1977, Mr. Schwartz has personally completed more than 30 facility plans and has been involved in more than $2 billion worth of construction. He has found that one of the greatest mistakes hospitals make is the hiring of the architect prior to the completion of a working facility plan.

This seminar teaches a health care facility how to complete a self evaluation and develop a basic facility plan prior to hiring the experts. Such a planning process can save between $50,000-$200,000 on the front end planning costs and millions when the final facility is geared to the hospital's needs and not those of the architects.

The seminar provides a hospital the basics in evaluating the space, function, and location requirements of each department and how to develop a matrix to evaluate the most immediate needs of the facility. Also discussed are alternative uses for excess inpatient spaces including the conversion of space for use as skilled nursing, rehab, psych, ambulatory services, allergy centers, pain centers, etc.

The Facility Plan's Role in the Annual Budgeting Process

Every hospital CFO has developed their own mechanisms for evaluating staffing needs. While completing the annual budget, thousands of hours are spent estimating future volumes and developing staffing needs to meet these volumes. Some hospitals complete 'zero based' staffing analysis while others base future staffing on percentages of current staffing.

The annual budget also examines:
     • Supply and equipment needs and may include inventory turns as well.
     • Bad debt and the number of days of receivables
     • Methods to improve both the speed of collections and the total amount collected.

While all of these are important, the annual budget rarely reflects on the condition of the facility or the impact of problems within the facility other than a line item related to depreciation.

This seminar discusses the merits of including an analysis of the physical plant on an annual basis, provides CFOs with a better understanding of the process, and suggests methods of identifying manpower costs associated with department locations and size.

The seminar provides the CFO with direction as to how to avoid the costs of an architect and how to best utilize outside consultants in the process. It examines the differences in costs related to a consultant completing a facility plan and a consultant facilitating the process.

Since 1977, Mr. Schwartz has personally completed more than 15 facility plans and has reviewed projects totaling approximately $2 billion of new construction and renovation projects. He has found that one of the greatest mistakes hospitals make is failing to plan annually for future facility needs and then hiring an architect prior to the completion of a working facility plan.

This seminar teaches a health care facility how to complete an annual self evaluation which can be included in its annual budget. The seminar will provide a hospital the basics in evaluating the space, function, & location requirements of each department and how to develop a matrix to evaluate the most immediate needs of the facility.

Reducing the Cost of Strategic Planning

This seminar examines the process of completing long term, short term, and immediate strategic plans internally.

It provides an understanding of the costs and time involved in consultant-generated strategic plans and illustrates how a hospital which wishes to have a professionally prepared strategic plan can maximize the use of their own resources and minimize the costs of the outside consultants.

This seminar was first presented at a Hospital Financial Management Association meeting and, while well received by the health care professionals and administrators, was extremely poorly accepted by the larger consulting firms who have for many years maintained a sense of mystique over the system such that they could maintain irrational charges for the finished product.

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