Craig Collins is the CFO of UK HealthCare, an academic health system based in Lexington, Ky. He recently connected with Becker's to share his highest priorities — and greatest foreseen challenges — for the coming fiscal year.
Question: What are the top three strategic financial priorities for your health system in the next fiscal year? How do these align with the organization's overall mission and goals?
Craig Collins: UK HealthCare's financial priorities are identical in support of the organization's overall mission. We are focused on advancing Kentucky by:
- Advancing subspecialty care for Kentucky and beyond while maintaining a focus on quality, access and value.
- Taking care of our employees through comprehensive care strategies.
- Leveraging our distinction as an academic medical center with aligned clinical care, research and education, including our partnerships with seven healthcare colleges.
Q: What are the biggest financial challenges facing your health system today? On the other hand, what are the most promising financial opportunities?
CC: [In terms of challenges], similar to other healthcare organizations, UK HealthCare is developing strategies to reduce and control personnel expenses for the organization. The availability of nursing and other bedside staff has continued to be a challenge, causing the organization to hire costlier contract [full-time equivalents] to accommodate patient needs. To help this challenge, our finance team is collaborating with operational leaders to develop staffing to workload models that ensure maximum licensure utilization.
UK HealthCare began a Clinical Documentation Improvement Initiative a year ago [which looks promising]. Since its implementation, we have seen great improvements in our quality and mortality outcomes, which directly impact our clinical reimbursement. This has been a great example of how partnering with our physician and operational leaders has an overall positive impact on our organization in many ways.
Q: How is your system leveraging technology and digital health platforms to enhance patient care, improve operational efficiency and generate revenue?
CC: We are two years into our implementation of Epic, so there's a focused effort on continued refinement and maximization of system benefit(s). Prior to the implementation of Epic, we established an e-ICU project and have been using it for our own internal monitoring, which was greatly beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now we're exploring ways to expand its capabilities.
Q: What partnerships, joint ventures, mergers or acquisitions is your system exploring to strengthen its financial position or expand service offerings?
CC: In December 2022, we welcomed King's Daughters Health System, a 465-licensed-bed system, based in Ashland, Kentucky, to the University of Kentucky operations. This acquisition expands our advanced medical care capabilities and access to patients in Eastern Kentucky, Southern Ohio and parts of West Virginia.
Our business development team continues to nurture our existing relations and outreach in the Commonwealth, exploring future opportunities to expand specialty care. In addition, our retail/specialty pharmacy has also continued to expand and grow their services for our patients.
Q: Given the unpredictability of events like pandemics, what are you doing to ensure financial resilience and sustainability in the face of unforeseen challenges?
CC: As we begin this fiscal year, UK HealthCare is developing financial educational programs that will focus on our continued partnership with hospital operations so that together we can better explain the sources and uses of our financial resources and how it impacts financial and quality outcomes. Transparency of the organization's finances, quality and the impact they have on the organization's strategies, strengthen our resilience for the future.