Financial & Operational Perspective | CFOs and COOs
Surgical services are often among a hospital’s largest revenue generators; they’re also one of its most expensive and complicated operations. I’ve worked with enough hospital executives to know that increasing surgical volume doesn’t necessarily mean improving profitability.
You can have busy operating rooms, growing case volumes, and still be leaving significant money on the table.
The question I would ask is: Are your surgical services operating at their full potential, and do you have the right leadership in place to get them there?
When evaluating surgical performance, I think it’s important to look beyond case volume. How effectively are you utilizing your ORs? Are your surgeons getting the block time they need? Are cases starting on time? How much capacity are you losing to staffing shortages, inefficient scheduling, or delays in sterile processing?
And importantly, do your surgical and financial leaders have a shared understanding of which services are actually contributing to the bottom line?
Your People Can Make or Break Your Strategy
I’ve seen hospitals invest heavily in new equipment, additional operating rooms, and physician recruitment without giving enough attention to whether they have the leadership and workforce to support that growth.
You can recruit an outstanding surgeon, but if you don’t have the nurses, surgical techs, anesthesia coverage, or sterile processing capacity to accommodate additional cases, you’re not going to realize the return you anticipated.
When it comes to physicians, surgeons need to be part of the conversation about scheduling, efficiency, supplies, and growth. When those relationships aren’t working, it seems like everyone feels it.
Do You Have the Right Surgical Services Leader?
There’s a difference between someone who can manage an operating room and someone who can strategically lead surgical services.
An experienced and well-rounded leader understands clinical quality, and also knows how to improve throughput, manage a budget, build relationships with surgeons, and how to identify opportunities for profitable growth.
If your surgical services are struggling, I’d encourage you to ask whether the problem is your processes, your resources, your leadership, or some combination of all three.
My takeaway: Before investing in additional surgical capacity, make sure you’re maximizing what you already have. And make sure the person leading that operation has the experience, relationships, and business acumen to deliver the results you’re expecting.
Sometimes your greatest opportunity for growth isn’t another operating room or another surgeon. It’s having the right leader in place to make everything work better.
