2024 Agenda

Canada’s productivity has remained low relative to other OECD countries, impacting employment and tax revenue. However, inflation is decreasing, and rates have started to come down again, albeit slowly. These are just some of the macro events taking shape that will impact budgets and your ability to effectively manage your organization’s finances.

Gain a big picture of the economic headwinds so that you can assess the risks and prepare for coming years.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Gain the latest insight into the macro trends that affect provincial and federal budgets to deliver on their funding models?
• What trends are we seeing on interest rates and economic outlook in the near term, and how will they impact capital financing projects over the next several years?
• How should hospital finance leaders plan under current budgetary pressures
• What good news are we seeing on the horizon, and how will that impact future plans

As we delve into the dynamic landscape of artificial intelligence, AI is a formidable ally in addressing the transformational pressures health care is facing. Using sophisticated learning algorithms to master the art of processing vast datasets, this technology promises to alleviate the strain on clinical outcomes, enhance health monitoring, and lighten the administrative load.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Navigate through the potential perils and prospects that accompany the integration of AI in both clinical and administrative areas
• Dissect the challenges inherent in adopting AI-driven solutions and underscore the necessity for organizations to craft a strategic blueprint
• How to articulate a plan to the emerging ‘language’ and methodologies that AI introduces, ensuring that solutions are adeptly tailored to address the sector’s pressing demands

In 2023, the Auditor General of Ontario tabled our Annual Report which included the hospital sector audits—Emergency Departments and Hospitals in Northern Ontario. A total of 34 audit recommendations aimed at improving the operation and management of these areas were made to the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health. This presentation will look at challenges and recommendations facing the health care sector through the lens of these two audits, which will also include observations related specifically to finances in Ontario hospitals.

More and more we are seeing aging hospitals struggle with upgrading facilities to serve their patients and provide the environment for the most advanced healthcare. From improvements to lower energy costs to building a new state-of-the-art operating room, the costs are high, and the process is long.

However, creative funding models do allow for the purchase of new assets and improved and modernized facility systems. In turn, savings from the capital spending can be used to pay for the construction and purchasing costs.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Learn how you can structure your infrastructure funding to provide a net-neutral expenditure

• Assess why this model is so successful, and how it can be positioned on the board

• Understand the challenges and opportunities similar organizations have experienced

With budgets shrinking and becoming more uncertain, the need to find innovative ways to generate alternative sources of income is necessary. From building innovative tech hubs in partnership with universities to renting out space for other services, there are many ways to add new income streams to your organization.

This panel will discuss some of the lessons they learned along the way, and how healthcare organizations can tap into some unrealized revenue opportunities.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Where is the best place to start, and how best to assess your unique position in the market

• What can you expect in terms of revenue, and how much risk is involved

• What are the limits to what you can do

• How to work with your boards and executive leadership to create buy in

• How to engage entrepreneurs, and outside talent to create those win-wins

Purchasing the necessary equipment to provide effective patient care is an expensive endeavor. More hospitals are now looking more closely at the managed ownership model, and opting for other options.

In this panel of hospital finance leaders, we will discuss assessing the total cost of ownership of your equipment, and the rationale for choosing the various options available to you.

The finance role continues to evolve, with the stakes getting higher as healthcare becomes more political. It seems appropriate to reflect on what where we are improving, what we are doing right, and what we can anticipate will emerge over the years to come.

We know funding is continuing to be a challenge, especially with greater demand for services and higher patient needs as our population ages.

Join in the discussion as we assess and debate the lessons learned over the past couple of years and strategize on the future implications of these challenges to hospital CFOs.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• How should funding models be modified to accommodate increased capacity?
• How are CFOs and CEOs working together to develop and implement strategies
• How will carbon taxes and interest rates impact hospitals?
• What are we seeing in innovation to tackle funding shortfalls
• What trends are we seeing and what would we like to see

Interest rates are finally falling, though they remain high relative to a few years ago. And with inflation remaining high, a shortage of labour in the construction trades leading to higher wages, many financing costs are taking a toll on building new infrastructure projects.

With every aspect of construction costing more, how are financial leaders coping with the added challenges?

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• What financing options are making the most sense right now?

• How are different organizations creating accounting opportunities to fund new capital projects?

The world’s largest database on major projects — with over 16,000 projects in more than 20 different project categories — revealed that fewer than half of projects (47.9%) finish on budget. Fewer than one in ten (8.5%) are completed on budget and on time. And a nearly invisible 0.5% of all projects are completed on budget, on time, and with the expected benefits. Worse, projects aren’t merely at risk of being a little off. Catastrophic failure is frighteningly common. Even home renovations can easily come in three or four times over budget. And the story is the same around the world.

If projects are so important, why are we so bad at them? In this talk, Dan Gardner draws on his book How Big Things Get Done to look at why failure is so common and why a rare few projects are triumphs. The mind-expanding lessons about how we conceive, plan, and deliver major projects apply to projects of every imaginable variety, at every scale, from home renovations to space exploration.