Resource Center

Health service providers are having to carefully manage the use of scarce resources while meeting a growing demand for services and rising expectations for quality. Conducting cost and revenue analyses can greatly increase managers’ understanding of the factors that affect resource use, including staffing patterns, service mix, service practices, and procurement. The information these analyses generate helps managers consider different ways of producing services in order to reduce costs, increase revenues, or both. Conducting a cost and revenue analysis is particularly useful to organizations that are trying to meet major management challenges, such as expanding existing services, integrating new services, or working toward financial sustainability.

This issue of The Manager shows why a cost and revenue analysis is useful and suggests various options for increasing cost efficiency and revenue generation. The issue presents three electronic spreadsheet software tools for analyzing costs and revenues and discusses the types of decisions managers can make using these tools. The issue also presents the tools’ features, data requirements, and the kinds of information they can generate.