Tenet execs detail turnaround progress

With its high-profile legal troubles in the past, Tenet Healthcare executives say that they're turning operations around, with a range of initiatives including physician sales and service programs, improvements efforts targeting under-performing facilities and a "targeted growth" program designed to restructure services within individual hospitals. Execs are also restructuring collections, improving operations within outpatient facilities and tightening up managed care contracts.

The numbers suggest that Tenet execs are having at least some success. Most notable is that the chain's first-quarter '07 revenue rose 3 percent, to $2.28 billion, from $2.21 billion in '06. Earnings, however, have seen little change, at $75 million in first-quarter '07 compared with $70 million in first-quarter '06. Over time, the key to Tenet's progress will be to simply boost patient volumes, analysts say. While the chain's growth initiatives may be working, it could take a long time for them to make an impact, they suggest.

To learn more about Tenet's strategy:
- read this Dallas Business Journal article