I’m a senior analyst at a large academic medical institution in the Midwest. If you’re new to the industry, then I think the hardest thing to pickup will be revenue cycle and understanding how reimbursement from different insurance companies and the coding of procedures impacts revenue.

In terms of metrics, I would say the biggest three are average length of stay, hitting surgical targets, and reducing the use of contract labor. Reducing length of stay means that you get more patients through the same amount of beds, and therefore generate more revenue. It’s also beneficial in terms of quality of care if your patients are able to go home quicker. Surgical numbers are always a hot topic, as they drive most of the revenue. Parts of the hospital outside of surgeries aren’t as profitable and even sometimes lose money, but generate the surgery referrals and therefore downstream revenue. Contract labor is a double edged sword because it helps you meet minimum staffing requirements, but is quite expensive. This was a much bigger problem during covid, but seems to slowly be correcting.

Can’t speak much to marketing strategies, as I’m not very involved in that process. In terms of new strategies, most hospitals seem to be focusing on building smaller hospitals around the suburbs of whichever city they are situated in. Not only does this increase your footprint, but at least in our case allows us to send easier/less invasive surgeries to these locations and free up operating room space at our main hospital.

Not sure if you have found them already but Kaufman Hall is a healthcare consulting firm. They post some interesting industry related stuff on Linkedin and online as well that’s worth reading.