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Financial Ratios Analysis and Comparison Paper

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Financial Ratios Analysis and Comparison Paper

Dianne Davis

MHA 612

Professor Johnson

June 7, 2014

Abstract

It is important for healthcare organizations to understand their present performance and weak areas in order to generate more effective operational strategies. Financial ratio analysis is an effective tool to determine hospital’s performance on several indicators such as ability to pay debt, capability to generate revenue, and sales performance etc. The objective of this paper is to describe role of different financial ratios in understanding organizational performance and in developing new strategy. The paper also presents comparative ratio analysis of local healthcare organization and industry …show more content…

According to the authors, ratio analysis is very effective way to measure financial performance of hospitals (Burkhardt & Wheeler, 2013). The authors mentioned about two major types of ratios important in healthcare industry i.e. return on investment and operating profit. Generally financial ratios can be divided in four major categories: liquidity ratios; assets turnover ratios; debt ratios; and profitability ratios. These financial ratios cover all major dimensions of business performance; hence a manager should include these ratios in his report (Cleverley et al., 2011).

Liquidity Ratios:

These ratios help company in determining its capability to pay short-term debts. Liquidity ratios inform about, how quickly a firm can obtain cash by liquidating its current assets in order to pay its liabilities. General liquidity ratios are: current ratio and quick ratio. Current ration can be obtain by dividing company’s current assets by its’ current liabilities. Generally a current ratio of two is considered as good (Cleverley et al., 2011). Quick ratio also known as acid test determines company’s liabilities that need to be fulfilled on urgent basis. Quick ratio can be obtained by dividing quick assets by current liabilities. Quick ratio is considered as stricter because it excludes inventories from current assets. Generally a quick ratio of 1:1 is considered as good for the company. Higher quick

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