Joslin Diabetes Center, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. The diabetes clinic is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Joslin. Joslin is mainly focused on diabetes research and education. The medical center has a treatment center for diabetes in Boston, Massachusetts.
A stable accounting department is pivotal to the success and growth of any organization. Joslin’s accounting department is responsible for the overall finances of the institution and is accountable for the accuracy of all internal and intercompany financial accounting transactions. The financial accounting section of the department has responsibility for the center as well as its subsidiaries’ financial functions of accounts receivable, accounts payable, and payroll (Eldenburg et al., 2017). The primary role of this section is to facilitate the financial accounting processes and control the process of salary payments, payment to supplier invoices, and enterprisingly manage the timely billing and collection of the organizational incomes. The financial acting section is also responsible for ensuring proper tax is assessed, with timely tax payments made to the various federal government agencies (Eldenburg et al., 2017). Joslin adopts a not-for-profit ownership form, and thus exempted from paying sales and property taxes. The accounting department only manages employee taxes.
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On the other hand, the management accounting section of the department is responsible for the organizational directorates, corporate departments, among other cost centers for pay, non-pay, and income budget preparation (Eldenburg et al., 2017). Joslin Diabetes Center operates a developed budgetary management process using an annual service plan with both annual and multi-annual budgeting. Budget estimation, preparations, and control are done within the context of the US GAAP and the International Financial Reporting Standards. The organization prepares various accounting documents, including the statement of financial position, the statements of activities, cash flow, budget, and schedule of expenditure of federal awards, among others.
Organization’s Financial Condition
The financial condition of the organization was analyzed based on the historical financial information from 2017 and 2018. The primary source of revenue for the organization is patient service revenue. The organization recorded $ 14,220,748 and $ 14,487,505 for 2018 and 2017 respectively. In addition, the organization also recoups operating revenue from other activities, including the rental of retail space at the Center, among others. Nonetheless, despite the positive net income for patient services, the organization had deficiencies in revenue, gains, and other support over expenses in 2018 and 2017. Generally, the organization incurred more expenses than the total unrestricted revenue, gains, among other supports. The deficiencies in 2018 and 2017 were $ 2,825,119 and $ 942,011, respectively. The subsequent increase in the level of deficiency for two years running shows the significant increase in hospital expenses as compared to the organizational revenues and support. The organization has also made investments over the years. While it has recorded losses as a result of investment or the sale of investments, Joslin recorded a positive change in net gains on investments of $ 6,603,327 and $ 9,644,126 for 2018 and 2017, respectively. Despite entering into an agreement with Eastern Bank, the organization has not secured any loan during fiscal 2017 or 2018. The organization’s budget is prepared based on the organization’s income and revenues from government grants and contracts.
Healthcare Trends that are Likely to Impact Joslin Diabetes Center, Inc
Today, organizations caring for diabetes are now focusing on patient-centered services that facilitate ongoing patient care and support. Today, big data has become a fundamental element of diabetes treatment. Technology to transmit continuous glucose monitoring data to the cloud as well as providing a real-time notification system have been developed (Mastrototaro, 2016). Joslin should consider adopting tools that aggregate health and wellness data with diabetes device data. With several groups taking advantage of home care solutions, Glooko, a prominent company developing diabetes care solutions, has developed an algorithm to avoid exercise-induced hypoglycemia (Mastrototaro, 2016). Furthermore, the adoption of systems that can record and transmit real-time data can help improve the process of identifying patients experience either hypo- or hyperglycemia beyond specific set limits. With the developing trend of home care solutions, Joslin should consider adopting real-time data collection systems that can collect, pump information, aggregate, and analyze information with other databases to facilitate improved health outcomes.
With the advancements in big data technology, Joslin has the potential to collect large amounts of data and translate them into healthcare advantages. Due to the growing prevalence of diabetes, particularly among the older population, there has been a shortage of personnel (Schimmer et al., 2019). However, the organization can use the new remote monitoring programs, particularly on Type 2 and non-intensive groups, as a way of easing pressure on the limited healthcare personnel (Mastrototaro, 2016). Moreover, the adoption of remote monitoring programs can improve the quality of home care solutions. Despite these apparent opportunities, the organization faces a challenge of sensitizing patients about the value of the system over the perceived burden of using the system, and thus the need for the simplicity of operations (Schimmer et al., 2019). In addition, giving the sensitivity of patient data, the organization will face the challenge of ensuring the safety of the system. Furthermore, the organization will face usability challenges, particularly with distilling and understanding the vast information collected by big data technology.
Joslin’s mission is to provide a care and support system to people living with diabetes (“Why Joslin”, 2020). The adoption of remote monitoring programs and home care solutions will help reduce the cost of offering the best possible care to diabetes patients. Thus, the incorporation of these trends into Joslin’s operation will help patients start a treatment plan and commence a journey towards a better life with diabetes using a relatively simpler manner.
References
Eldenburg, L. G., Krishnan, H. A., & Krishnan, R. (2017). Management accounting and control in the hospital industry: A review. Journal of Governmental & Nonprofit Accounting , 6 (1), 52-91.
Mastrototaro, J. J. (2016). The transformation of diabetes care through the use of person-centered data. Journal of diabetes science and technology , 10 (1), 42-49.
Schimmer, R., Orre, C., Öberg, U., Danielsson, K., & Hörnsten, Å. (2019). Digital person-centered self-management support for people with type 2 diabetes: Qualitative study exploring design challenges. JMIR diabetes , 4 (3), e10702.
Why Joslin. (2020). Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://www.joslin.org/about/why-joslin
