Question

you are to pretend that you are the practice administrator of a 5 physician cardiology practice. On February 3, 2018 one of the cardiologist asks to speak to you about the January practice revenue. She wants to know why the January revenue was so low. The revenue for January (2018) was $350,000 while the average monthly revenue for 2017 was $485,000. In addition, the revenue for January (2017) was $415,000. You explained to the cardiologist that two of the other cardiologists were on vacation during the beginning of December (2017) and that you thought that may have played a factor in the dip in January 2018 revenue. What could be impacting the decrease in January (2018) revenue? What data would you need to facilitate your decision making?

Answer 1

It can be seen that the January 2017 revenue was also 415,000, which was significntly lower than the monthly average of 485000 during the same year. In this way, there seems to be a variation of demand across different seasons, which can be attributed to the low revenue in Jan. 2018. Besides the fact that two cardiologists were on leave, there can be a major quality issue that could have decresed popularity of practice.

Following additional data is needed for an informed decision making.

(i) The revenue per month attributed to  each cardiologist individually.

(ii) Monthly trend of revenue in past years.

(iii) Pattern of Customer reviews, complaints and other major issues related to quality, compliance to laws and regulations, incidents that could cause harm to the reputation of the practice.

(iv) Analysis of the change in business scenario, such as introduction of new techniques, change in regulations, demographic changes, increase in the competitive activity etc.

(v) Changes in Economic scenario such as regulation of prices of healthcare services, mandatory low cost service to a fraction of patients, sudden surge in operational costs etc.