Tag Archives for " reducing hospital operating costs "
Survey Says… C-suite leaders credit improved care as best way to cut costs
Executives say adapting existing cost structures is the biggest challenge.
A survey of nearly 80 healthcare executives from Huron Healthcare revealed that executives feel “…improving clinical operations and care delivery offers the biggest opportunity for cost reductions,”
“These survey findings are consistent with what we are seeing and hearing from clients across the country,” said Gordon Mountford, executive vice president of Huron Healthcare.
Tempering their optimism about value-based care however, are the concerns they have about implementing it. Nearly 55% of those polled said their organization’s primary challenge in the transition to value-based care will be adapting their cost structures to generate revenue and control costs.
You can read more details, and download the full report here
Evidence-based protocols drive quality improvement
An article published in FierceHelathcare’s eBook “Systemwide Transformations that Improve Healthcare Quality and Efficiency.” argues the best way to treat patients is with evidence-based protocols (EBPs).
Here is an excerpt:
In a new and evolving healthcare market that rewards efficiency and quality care, hospitals must find a way to streamline their systems to put forth better results for patients and more savings for their organizations.
One way to accomplish this is by focusing on evidence-based care protocols–the clinical care recommendations supported by the best available evidence in the clinical literature.
Although there may be 200 ways to do something, in some cases clinicians have strong evidence that reveals the best way to do it, says David J. Ballard, M.D., Ph.D., chief quality officer for Baylor Scott & White Health, a not-for-profit healthcare system based in Dallas that includes 46 hospitals and more than 500 patient care sites. For instance, Baylor implemented a standardized heart failure order set, which has the potential, if it were deployed across the country, to save $2 billion in annual hospital costs and prevent 1,500 in-hospital deaths annually.
The results of EBPs are better care for patients, and cost savings for healthcare organizations.
You can read more about Evidence-Based Practices here.
5 ways to reduce hospital-acquired infections
Hospital-acquired infections are a serious issue. Resulting in loss of lives and increased hospital costs, both of which are preventable. These 5 tips may help.
Although the rates of infection have steadily decreased over the past few years, still approximately 75,000 deaths were attributed to hospital-acquired infections in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are measures that can be taken to lower infection rates which are surprisingly easy.
Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion strategies are a common treatment in the U.S. But, infection rates dropped by 20 percent when hospitals performed them less often.
It is the simplest one on the list, and a shock that it even needs to be on here. Yet, a large enough portion of healthcare workers resist the practice that it bears constant reminding.
This is a shameless plug because it works. Other industries have adopted information technologies to dramatically improve their quality, Healthcare is no different.
A study at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine found that a dedicated and educated housekeeping team reduced room infection by 89% of baseline.
- Consider using copper surfaces
A study published in the May 2013 issue of Infection Control and Epidemiology found that copper surfaces reduced the amount of health care-acquired infections by more than half.
Did you know that October 15, is Global Handwashing Day?
I didn’t until I wrote this article. Find out more information by visiting the globalhandwashing.org website.
Hospital Quality Initiatives Save Nearly $1.5B
In 2012, more than 1,500 hospitals participated with the Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) in an initiative aimed at reducing harm and cutting readmissions of patients, which led to saving more than $1.3 billion, according to a statement from the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET).
HEN, a collaboration between Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) and the American Hospital Association (AHA), is focused on improving healthcare quality, improve hospital infrastructures and promote a culture of quality.
In a news release by HRET, the program prevented:
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- Nearly 19,000 early-elective deliveries
- More than 11,000 readmissions
- More than 8,500 infections
“The latest results from the HEN effort are outstanding and highlight the success that quality improvement professionals can make within their hospitals and health systems,” said Maulik Joshi, president of HRET and senior vice president for AHA.
This should be beacon for hospital executives and administrators who are searching for ROI on the quality and performance initiatives they are funding. Innovations in healthcare quality IT incident management and hospital management software, like the ActionCue application, are revolutionizing how hospitals provide care to patients. By introducing IT technologies perfected in other industries to the performance and quality management of hospitals, it is now becoming possible for administrators and front-line staff to visualize, in real-time, the performance of their hospital — allowing for near immediate actions to correct adverse incidents — preventing bad outcomes, improving patient care and dramatically reducing hospital costs.