Economic Downturn

When it comes to business and economics, the bad news is pouring like rain, go to any news website or social bookmarking website and you'll find dozens of links telling you what a mess that is in business in shambles, banks are failing, real property is dissolving, and a new study has revealed that 80% of Americans are stressed due to economic conditions. Therefore, it seems that the sky is falling, I know it can feel like rubbing salt in the wound when I say that these conditions can be used for their benefit.

As shown in the accompanying chart, the decline in use over the past two years began moderation until 2010. Hospital discharges declined 1.6 percent and patient days fell by 3 percent in January-September 2010 compared with the same period in 2009, according to the IHA program database. Births rose 0.6 percent and patient days of age decreased by 5.4 percent. Admission hospital emergency room fell 3.4 percent, inpatient surgeries increased 0.7 percent and outpatient surgeries declined 1.4 percent.

In an economic downturn, the challenge for the IT Pro is a return to the concepts of return on investment for technology. This means studying in detail how the company makes money and where costs are incurred. Once the facts are known, then the next step is to find opportunities for improvement. It really is as simple as that. However, the challenge is to gather the basic facts - maybe a better system of instrumentation needed to be able to find opportunities for improvement. Maybe that means you need a consultant to help guide the way, or if you have the skills at home, in any case the job is clear: spend smarter, not less. Do not focus only on reducing their spending, but spending on the things that makes your company more profitable and more efficient.