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Resource allocation in academic health centers: creating common metrics
Keith A Joiner1, Nathan Castellanos, Steven A Wartman
1Center for Management Innovations in Healthcare, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, USA. kjoiner@email.arizona.edu
Summary
Ratio analysis offers a method for optimizing resource allocation in academic health centers (AHCs). Financial ratios provide more consistent metrics than faculty-based ratios for AHC management.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Management Science
Background:
- Effective resource allocation is crucial for academic health centers (AHCs).
- Limited guidelines exist for optimizing research and educational resource management in AHCs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze institutional data using ratio analysis to develop metrics for resource allocation.
- To identify effective methods for comparing resource allocation across different AHCs.
Main Methods:
- Utilized ratio analysis on data from the 2007-2008 Association of Academic Health Centers census.
- Normalized institutional data by creating ratios of internal values to minimize the impact of institution size.
- Compared staffing and operating ratios across up to 54 institutions.
Main Results:
- Faculty-based ratios showed wide variation, indicating inconsistent faculty definitions across institutions.
- Financial ratios, such as total payroll expense/total operating expense, were more tightly clustered and discriminatory.
- Ratio analysis effectively displayed the range and distribution of institutional values.
Conclusions:
- Ratio analysis is a valuable tool for developing resource allocation metrics in AHCs.
- Financial ratios offer more reliable insights for AHC management due to uniform definitions.
- Further development of metrics for research and educational resource allocation is supported by these findings.
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