Benchmarking is a way to determine where a facility needs improvement.
Below are 19 financial benchmarks for health systems from Fitch Ratings, outlined in its "2021 Median Ratios: Not-for-Profit Hospitals and Healthcare Systems" report.
The sample size included 114 nonprofit health systems rated by Fitch. The figures are the medians reported by the health systems from fiscal year 2020.
1. Cash on hand: 255 days
2. Accounts receivable: 44.6 days
3. Cushion ratio: 29x
4. Current liabilities: 95 days
5. Cash to debt: 169.9 percent
6. Cash to adjusted debt: 161.1 percent
7. Operating margin: 1.3 percent
8. Operating EBITDA margin: 6.7 percent
9. Excess margin: 3.1 percent
10. EBITDA margin: 8.5 percent
11. Net adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDA: -2.6 percent
12. Personnel costs as percent of total operating revenue: 55 percent
13. EBITDA debt service coverage: 3.9x
14. Operating EBITDA debt service coverage: 3.2x
15. Maximum annual debt service as percent of revenues: 2.2 percent
16. Debt to EBITDA ratio: 4.4x
17. Debt to capitalization: 35.2 percent
18. Average age of plant: 11.4 years
19. Capital expenditures as percent of depreciation expense: 110.1 percent