A Financial Analysis of Brazilian Hospitals Between 2006 and 2011

This paper presents the results of a research that aimed at developing a financial analysis of a sample of Brazilian hospitals between 2006 and 2011. The data were collected from financial statements of 23 hospitals and from the Database of United Health System. These secondary data were analyzed through the following techniques: descriptive statistics, Spearman’s correlation, Kolmogorov-Smirnov’s test, Kruskal-Wallis’ test and Chi-square’s test. It was verified that the sample presents unsatisfactory general results about financial performance, especially when related to financial ratios of profitability and return. However, the analysis of different categories of hospitals displays relevant and significant divergences, especially about the type of hospitals: publics and voluntaries ones. The voluntary hospitals present higher liquidity ratios and the best profitability and their capital structure usually focus on long term financing obtained from external agents. These evidences suggest that those organizations focus on financial leverage to achieve better results without deteriorate their liquidity. On the other hand, the public hospitals present lower liquidity as well as worse profitability and return ratios. It was verified that the large-sized hospitals usually present lower financial ratios (liquidity, profitability and return) than the medium-sized hospitals