Questions
The online discussion gives you the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with other students completing this course. The topics have been chosen to help focus your thinking around the important concepts we are covering in the course and will therefore help you with the assessments for the course.
The on-line discussion questions begin in Week 3 so that you have an opportunity to do some reading on the topics. But you can post before this time if you wish.
Apart from responding to the actual question asked, I encourage you to give your response to the comments made by other members of your group. The idea is that we generate some rich discussion rather than have individuals simply post their views.
You can respond to all discussion questions if you wish but you must respond to at least three discussion topics as part of the assessment process. If you respond to less than three discussion topics you will get no marks for the on-line discussion component - ie you will get zero marks out of the 10 marks allocated to the on-line discussion part of the overall assessment.
These posts are not meant to be mini-essays. There is no need for references unless you quote someone directly or if you think a particular article you found was particularly interesting.
If you make most of your contributions in the last week of the semester it is unlikely that you would get more than 2/10. If your three responses are superficial or show a lack of effort you will receive a mark of less than five out of ten.
If you make three contributions but do not engage in any discussion with other group members - you will receive 6-8 marks - depending on how thoughtful your contributions are.
Student who have three insightful responses, and have some engagement with other group members, will receive 9-10 marks for this component.
Any contributions posted after 1stNovember 2016will be ignored for the purposes of this assessment.
Topic 1:
What are the main sources of revenue for the organisation in which you work? What is the most important source of revenue? What are the organisation's main expenses? What is the main expense? Is the aim of the organisation to make profits? If not, what is the primary aim?
Topic 2:
If the primary aim of public hospitals is not to make a profit, but to provide high quality health services, should they spend any time at all on financial management? Do you agree that we should try to save patients' lives no matter what it costs?
Topic 3:
The Victorian Auditor General in its report "Public Hospitals: Results of the 2013-14 Audits" says "Seventy per cent of public hospitals had a poor capital replacement risk result as at 30 June 2014. This means that many hospitals, particularly in rural areas, are not renewing or replacing fixed assets at the pace at which they are consuming them. This means that services may be at risk in the future due to assets becoming obsolete."
Why do you think governments have allowed this situation to arise? Do you think that this is a sound way to financially manage hospitals?
Topic 4:
The 2013-14 Victorian State Budget allocated $420.7 million over four years to be allocated on a competitive basis to drive efficiencies in elective surgery, meet increasing levels of demand and treat more Victorian elective surgery patients sooner. This is referred to as the Competitive Elective Surgery Initiative which invites private hospitals to perform publicly funded surgery for a competitive price. What financial incentives are behind this policy? Do you think it is a good idea?
Topic 5:
A report from the National Health Performance Authority (https://www.myhospitals.gov.au/our-reports/cost-of-acute-admitted-patients/april-2016/report) found:
- In 2013-14, the cost of providing an average service could be almost twice as high at one major metropolitan hospital ($6,100) compared to another ($3,100)
- From 2011-12 to 2013-14, eight major metropolitan public hospitals decreased their cost for providing a notional ‘average' service by at least 5%, indicating improved efficiency. Both Western Hospital in Footscray in Vic and Westmead Hospital in NSW decreased their cost by 9% over this period
Can you suggest two ways of cutting costs in your organisation that would not interfere with patient outcomes?
Topic 6:
How is budgeting done in your organisation? After reading the budgeting material in the lecture notes can you identify some deficiencies in the existing budgetary processes in your organisation? What implications do you think these may have on your organisation?
Topic 7:
In relation to the organisation in which you work, give an example of how capital budgeting techniques could be applied - for example, does your organisation buy expensive medical equipment? How could capital budgeting be applied to a cost-saving project in your organisation - ie investing in energy-saving equipment?
Topic 8:
The Federal government has calculated the ‘efficient price' for providing hospital services in Australia - see www.ihpa.gov.au. And each State government also calculates an ‘efficient price' for health services within its state. Do you think that this is a good policy change? What impact do you think this will have on the way hospitals and other health providers deliver their services?
Topic 9:
What are the key messages that you have learnt from studying this course? Were there any particular concepts that will help you in your day-to-day activities in the health care industry? If so describe what they are and how they will help you.