HCA Holdings 2012 Annual Report Download - page 68

HCA HOLDINGS, INC.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION
AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS (continued)
2012 Operations Summary (continued)
Interest expense totaled $1.798 billion for 2012, compared to $2.037 billion for 2011. The $239 million
decline in interest expense for 2012 was due primarily to a decline in the average interest rate.
Cash flows from operating activities increased $242 million, from $3.933 billion for 2011 to $4.175 billion
for 2012. The increase in cash flows from operating activities was primarily related to a positive impact from
changes in working capital items of $236 million, as cash benefits from income items were offset by increased
tax payments.
Business Strategy
We are committed to providing the communities we serve with high quality, cost-effective health care while
growing our business, increasing our profitability and creating long-term value for our stockholders. To achieve
these objectives, we align our efforts around the following growth agenda:
Grow Our Presence in Existing Markets. We believe we are well positioned in a number of large and
growing markets that will allow us the opportunity to generate long-term, attractive growth through the
expansion of our presence in these markets. We plan to continue recruiting and strategically collaborating with
the physician community and adding attractive service lines such as cardiology, emergency services, oncology
and women’s services. Additional components of our growth strategy include expanding our footprint through
developing various outpatient access points, including surgery centers, rural outreach, freestanding emergency
departments and walk-in clinics.
Achieve Industry-Leading Performance in Clinical and Satisfaction Measures. Achieving high levels of
patient safety, patient satisfaction and clinical quality are central goals of our business model. To achieve these
goals, we have implemented a number of initiatives including infection reduction initiatives, hospitalist
programs, advanced health information technology and evidence-based medicine programs. We routinely analyze
operational practices from our best-performing hospitals to identify ways to implement organization-wide
performance improvements and reduce clinical variation. We believe these initiatives will continue to improve
patient care, help us achieve cost efficiencies, grow our revenues and favorably position us in an environment
where our constituents are increasingly focused on quality, efficacy and efficiency.
Recruit and Employ Physicians to Meet Need for High Quality Health Services. We depend on the quality
and dedication of the health care providers and other team members who serve at our facilities. We believe a
critical component of our growth strategy is our ability to successfully recruit and strategically collaborate with
physicians and other professionals to provide high quality care. We attract and retain physicians by providing
high quality, convenient facilities with advanced technology, by expanding our specialty services and by building
our outpatient operations. We believe our continued investment in the employment, recruitment and retention of
physicians will improve the quality of care at our facilities.
Continue to Leverage Our Scale and Market Positions to Enhance Profitability. We believe there is
significant opportunity to continue to grow the profitability of our company by fully leveraging the scale and
scope of our franchise. We are currently pursuing next generation performance improvement initiatives such as
contracting for services on a multistate basis and expanding our support infrastructure for additional clinical and
support functions, such as physician credentialing, medical transcription and electronic medical recordkeeping.
We believe our centrally managed business processes and ability to leverage cost-saving practices across our
extensive network will enable us to continue to manage costs effectively. We have created a subsidiary, Parallon
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