Math 1-0oops-1
The last board meeting was another interesting night with a practice in futility. Many question why so many people are fed up and skeptical about our current situation. This meeting gave a perfect example.
Board packets are usually given out 4-5 days before the meeting. Inside the packets is usually the information that will be discussed in addition to the financial statements. Once again, the packets were lacking some key information that was to be discussed that night.
Most people would assume the financial reports would have been carefully scrutinized and reviewed prior to being given to the Board especially when you recently had such a huge financial mistake in the tune of $13 plus million dollars.
It is unclear how many college educated people actually see this report before it is given to the Board, but at the very least, the finance department and the CEO should have reviewed it.
Without giving details of the categories these numbers represent, an example of some of the numbers are as follows. Numbers in parentheses are negative or deficits. "Actual" is what actually occured for the month, "Budget" is what was predicted for the month and "% Actual Budget" is the net change.
Actual $208,000
Budget ($154,000)
% Actual Budget -235.1% (this was reported as a negative 235% change)
Actual ($37,000)
Budget ($756,000)
% Actual Budget -32.7% (this was reported as a negative 32.7% change)
I tried explaining to them if you predict a deficit in a certain budget item and you actually show a positive number or less of a loss than was budgeted, the percent change is positive and not negative.
If I predict that next month I will owe 10 dollars but end up making 15 dollars, the change is a positive change, not a negative percentage.
I was still not convinced that some at the meeting really understood the concept, but they did say they would change the formula on the spreadsheet for next month.
And you wonder why so many people still have major concerns about the numbers and their validity!!!
Board packets are usually given out 4-5 days before the meeting. Inside the packets is usually the information that will be discussed in addition to the financial statements. Once again, the packets were lacking some key information that was to be discussed that night.
Most people would assume the financial reports would have been carefully scrutinized and reviewed prior to being given to the Board especially when you recently had such a huge financial mistake in the tune of $13 plus million dollars.
It is unclear how many college educated people actually see this report before it is given to the Board, but at the very least, the finance department and the CEO should have reviewed it.
Without giving details of the categories these numbers represent, an example of some of the numbers are as follows. Numbers in parentheses are negative or deficits. "Actual" is what actually occured for the month, "Budget" is what was predicted for the month and "% Actual Budget" is the net change.
Actual $208,000
Budget ($154,000)
% Actual Budget -235.1% (this was reported as a negative 235% change)
Actual ($37,000)
Budget ($756,000)
% Actual Budget -32.7% (this was reported as a negative 32.7% change)
I tried explaining to them if you predict a deficit in a certain budget item and you actually show a positive number or less of a loss than was budgeted, the percent change is positive and not negative.
If I predict that next month I will owe 10 dollars but end up making 15 dollars, the change is a positive change, not a negative percentage.
I was still not convinced that some at the meeting really understood the concept, but they did say they would change the formula on the spreadsheet for next month.
And you wonder why so many people still have major concerns about the numbers and their validity!!!
posted by Anonymous at 6:10 AM
30 Comments:
I would expect you to be good in math. IMHO, it is about the only area in life that is black & white. 2 + 2=4 or it doesn't. Conversely, beyond the basics, math is not my strongpoint. Trying to convince my math teachers that 4.2 was close didn't work too well!!
I am not a math genious, but it does appear that this was a pretty basic error that made it all the way to the Board before being caught.
That is a scary thought.
Wow! That sounds like a really important issue. Did you pick any other nits that evening?
It is an important issue. If they can't get the simple stuff right, how can they possibly get the complicated things right.
Ask any of the Directors if they believe any of the numbers coming out of the finance department.
This is the epitome of incompetence
It's genius, not genious.
Regarding: "This is the epitome of incompetence"
That is a ridiculous thing to say. Every computer calculation program shows variances from expected the same way that was described by HB. That is no big deal for anyone who understands how accounting software works. Acting like that was a big deal is the "epitome" of nit-picking.
Giving a report to a Board with a gross miscalculation on a sreadsheet when your department just caused a multimillion dollar error is incompetent even if you don't want to admit it.
Are you one of them???
It is a NIT...Certainly no worse than misspelling "spreadsheet." Focus on something important.
I just love so many anonymous people accusing other anonymous people of being THE administration.
It shor do make me smile.
Who else would be sticking up for such obvious incompetence?
As an employee and hearing my director comment repeatedly on the inaccurate and ever-changing numbers, this shows the problem is real.
Changing the topic and commenting on spelling doesn't make the problem go away.
It just makes the person look like an administrative cronie.
Well, your director should be keeping their mouth shut to their employees about such things. It is amazing how much inaccurate info gets passed along because people only hear a part the story and/or don't understand things. Ever stop to think that perhaps your director does not know everything either?
We had a small celebration here when we reached the $20 million in revenue mark a few years ago. Later, we had employees going around fuming because "the shirts made 20 million". How ridiculous is that? Did not understand the difference between revenue and profit. I am sure that down at the tavern we managers were the biggest dogs around until we found out what they were thinking. I still don't know if some of them
understand.
I wish iamhoosier had the oppurtunity to work with some of the vipers in Floyd's administration. His perspective would be quite different I think. He does a great job with pizza and suds though.
I hope that anon 5:49 is better at recognizing vipers than he/she is at spelling and understanding that "Iamhoosier" is not the owner of Rich O's. I wonder if he/she gets anything right? Probably explains why he/she doesn't get along well with management.
It's all very interesting to watch the blog become personal attacks on each comment. Let's focus now on the real issue....FMHHS overestimated funds by 13 million bucks and somehow the administration benefitted from it personally. Yikes!!!!!
HB, the numbers are a joke.
Why does the vice-chief have to explain the numbers to the bean counters anyways?
Anonymous 12:16, it is NOT nitpicking, it is a travesty, and quite sad for the hospital, the community, and the employees. Just another blunder written off as someone else's fault.
HB, simply put, if the finance department and others reviewing the financials cannot understnad the difference between a postiive figure of 523 from a negative figure (523) expressed from an accounting standpoint, then the financials should be dummied down even more.
Maybe you could suggest putting the ACTUAL SYMBOL in front of the figures being reviewed:
positive +
negative -
that should clear up any misunderstandings.
Post-it notes on all the computers in finance should help get it right for next month's meeting.
Don't be so harsh, it was the fault of the software.
Anon 5:49,
As has been correctly pointed out, my expertise does not extend to pizza dough. Campbell's soup is the extent of my culinary skills. I am sure that the "New Albanian" is highly insulted that we were confused for each other.
Just another example of not knowing but thinking that you do. Hey, it happens to all of us, myself included. Probably the main reason that I see so many shades of gray in things. I am aware that I can't, and don't, know everything.
HOLY FREAKING CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE ON THIS BLOG WAS BOLD ENOUGH TO ADMIT TO NOT BEING AN EXPERT ON EVERYTHING!
Kudos, Hoosier! I'm hugging you in my mind right now. That almost brought me to tears. How do you think we can get some of these other know-it-alls to take it down a notch?
Guys, it's easy to think that things are always as they appear. I promise you, they are not. In fact, they rarely are. Hey nurses--have you ever been called incompetent by a patient? Maybe that patient didn't know you were working a double because your relief was a no-show, there was a new admission on your hall, someone coded, pharmacy made a late delivery, the printer broke down, and you had some wicked yogurt for lunch that just won't leave you alone, etc? If that patient isn't working alongside you, he can't know those things. So, when you're not as on-the-ball as he thinks you should be, he just blames you.
If you are not a member of management, have never been held accountable for financials, and have never been a corporate accountant, then you can't possibly know as much about this situation as you think you do. And NO, I am NOT ONE OF THEM. I don't even work at Floyd. But I'm also not a big enough asshole to presume I know anything about a field in which I have no first-hand experience. Yes, something here went terribly awry. But I guarantee you that no amount of speculation on your part will help you divine the answer to whatever that was. Does ANYONE understand this concept (except hoosier;)
Anon 1:58,
Since you are mentally hugging me, I hope that you are female. Being the liberal that I am, it is okay if you are not but I would prefer the former!(smile)
Well, ANON 1:58, surely you make an exception for HB who is not only capable of being a top notch physician, but also has vast expertise in hospital management, financial accounting and creation science.
1:58 here again. Yep, I'm a chick.
3:49--HB files exempt status from all rules, duh.
Hmm, IAmHoosier, you actually haven't eaten pizza for a while ... suds are another story, though.
"HB has vast expertise in hospital management?" Since when?
Interestingly, assuming Floyd County's population remains the same as the 2000 census (70,283), then each of us Floyd County residents only owes $183.55 (each)to pay off the debt. However, I'm not sure my 3 kids can make their payment this quarter, though.
At least its far less than our pro rata share of the national debt.
I've lost track of how many individuals we're blaming here, but I say we hold them directly accountable. How does the debt convert from $ to pounds of flesh? We should be able to take, oh say, 1lb a year for the next million years and eventually be able to call it even...assuming there are 13ish hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Of course it would be too easy if the numbers were that clean, though, so we'll have to see if we can get HB to work out the specifics in Spreadsheet and get back to us.
We'll do our first harvest next Saturday at sunset. B.Y.O. pitchfork.
Any chance we could blame it on JCAHO?
Been on vacation and catching up on all the fun here. It never ceases to amaze me that the finger pointing goes to those that have no control over the financials. And now, it’s the fault of the software. Amazing! I have heard from reliable sources in IS that Finance has more software programs than any other department in the Hospital. If that’s the case, then why are the Board reports still done in an Excel Spread sheet??? The fact that Finance can’t explain the cause of the error and blame it on the software is just another example of nobody being held accountable down there! Who do you think set up the programs in the first place? Don’t say IS because Finance has been notorious for bypassing IS and doing their own thing for years. I still don’t understand how a competent CEO could not spot these types of errors years ago. Oh Ya - the key word there is COMPETENT!
I would be inclined to think the CEO would rely on the figures from the experts in the field of accounting. Its not as if he has time or the knowledge to go line by line on those reports summarized by the accounting experts. I'm not pro or con for the CEO and I'm just one man's opinion. Its bothersome to think the administration relies on information they receive from the finance/reimbursement area with no one actually an analyst, they opt/and or resort to accepting the numbers received. Without their knowledge to even know how to actually surf the multiple programs, it makes them quite vulnerable. Rather than attending a state or national meeting, perhaps funds alloted to meetings should go to education of the highest paid associaties of the hospital in the form of a few accounting classes. It pays to know what is going on below your job level to be proficient.
YES,What did happen to JCAHO accrediation???
Well,uh, the joint commission accreditation, uh we were going to switch anyways. No, really it was a bad surveyor. Geez, wasn't the mail was slow that day?
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