The Role of the Intellectual Potential of Employees in Creating the Goodwill of a Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Hospitals are medical entities providing health services to patients. The dominant share of labour costs in the cost structure of the healthcare entity is evidence of the critical role of employees in a hospital's activities. Specialized medical staff provide medical services and educate future medical staff, while also conducting clinical trials and supporting the development of medical technologies. The article aims to recognize the impact of the intellectual potential of employees on creating goodwill in a teaching hospital. The inference was made based on the financial data available on hospital employees' income and labour costs as factors in the development of the goodwill of a teaching hospital. The following research questions were posed: whether the existing legal regulations regarding the financing of the activities of teaching hospitals in Poland, including the costs of medical staff, are conducive to the creation and development of goodwill of teaching hospitals; whether the ratio of the value of operating revenues to labour costs can be considered as a determinant of the increase in the goodwill of a teaching hospital. The research was conducted based on reporting data for 2018 - 2019 involving selected teaching hospitals as the basic units associating high-class medical specialists. The research was empirical and based on quantitative and qualitative data. The analyses were of an expert nature, from the perspective of a statutory auditor and a long-term researcher of the problems of the functioning of medical entities - hospitals. The preliminary findings indicate that the intellectual capital of teaching hospitals is crucial in creating and developing the goodwill measured by the ratio of the value of operating revenues to labour costs. The considerations undertaken in the article are an essential voice in recognizing the conditions for developing hospitals as entities with intellectual capital that is helpful in solving health problems on an international scale. The article is a continuation of the author's research on the development of intellectual capital of employees of teaching hospitals in Poland.