It is the second Monday night in October and it is now 3 a.m.You cannot sleep. You are the CFO of Marysville General Hospital, a300-bed community hospital in the Midwest. Your hospital boardmeets at noon on the second Tuesday of each month. You have a trulyawful report to give the board, and you are dreading it more thananything else you've done in your 15-year career as a hospitalsenior manager. The target for days in accounts receivable (whichthe board and CEO set some years ago) is 55 days. When AR days areat 55, cash flow to the hospital is strong and you can meet allmonthly obligations while putting some money away into investmentsfor the hospital’s future. It has been several years now since thehospital has seen its AR at 55 days. There have been many factors,but AR has been in the 70–80 day range for some time now. Lastmonth it crept up over 90 days, and this month you have the painfultask of reporting to the board and CEO that the hospital iscarrying 100 days in accounts receivable. You must come up with aplan to bring AR days back in line, and you will not be able toaccomplish that alone. It will take cooperation from the medicalstaff, the clinical departments, health information management, thebusiness office, and many others. But it must happen and it musthappen soon, or your community could actually lose its hospital.Your Role/Assignment Come up with a plan to bring AR days back inline. It will take cooperation from the medical staff, the clinicaldepartments, health information management, the business office,and many others, so include how you will involve these departmentsin devising a solution. As you prepare your process improvementplan, keep the following in mind. What further data collection willyou conduct before beginning to write your plan? What will be theelements of your plan? For each element, who will be the keyplayers and what will be their roles? What resources outside ofsenior management will you engage? How will you present your planat the board meeting? How will you know that your plan has beeneffective?
