If you've worked inside a healthcare organization you've probably heard the question:

“What's the EBITDA impact?”

But what happens when a financial reporting metric slowly becomes the mission of the entire organization?

In this conversation, Jimmy McKay and Larry Benz unpack:

• What EBITDA actually measures

• How "Adjusted EBITDA" becomes a fiction contest

• Why chasing the metric can distort clinical care

• The Soviet nail factory problem in healthcare

• What a healthier dashboard for PT organizations should look like

Larry also explains the four pillars every physical therapy organization should measure instead of obsessing over EBITDA.

If you lead a healthcare organization, this conversation will challenge how you think about metrics, culture, and what actually drives sustainable performance.

Chapters

00:00 The phrase every healthcare leader hears

00:40 EBITDA explained simply

02:40 When the tool becomes the mission

03:20 The “Adjusted EBITDA fiction contest”

05:40 How metrics change behavior

07:40 Why clinicians are the real business

10:20 The Soviet nail factory story

13:30 What healthcare should measure instead

14:00 Larry’s four pillar dashboard

18:00 Culture is the engine of EBITDA

When EBITDA Becomes the Mission