Wednesday, March 15, 2017

How to Improve Productivity in Healthcare

Originally published on February 28, 2017 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

The movement from volume to value based care, as well as alternative payment models are going to require institutions to discover new methods of increasing productivity.
"In healthcare today, an increase in productivity is a skill" writes Joe Flower in an article for Hospitals and Health Networks.


Even though it might not be simple to do more with less, it’s possible to discover methods of being more productive. Below are some of his recommendations:
If you change your structure of payment, be certain your productivity metric will match it. It’ll make it simpler to notice productivity problems. Flower utilizes the example of an institution which moves a pain office from a model that is fee-for-service to a per-employee-per-month agreement for a warehousing business. If the institution performs an MRI on all patients, it’ll raise costs and lower productivity.
Redesign all EHRs to reflect clinical workflow. Many systems are not built around patient needs or clinician workflow. The poor interface and poor structure causes productivity problems.
Be certain new technologies help with productivity. Newer technology, like robotics and artificial intelligence, actually can slow productivity if it makes clinicians adapt to this technology rather than being certain the technology meets the necessities of clinical workflow. However, if utilized in the right way, it may decrease administrative tasks and mistakes. Flower states great examples of technologies which have increased productivity are IBM Watson and UT MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Oncology Expert Advisor.
And last but not least, lobby against all increased regulations. It is hard for any institution to completely comply with all the regulations presently in place. Joe Flower advocates for providers to organize and lobby to persuade state and federal agencies and additional regulators to take data from a standardized information set derived right from each institution’s electronic records.

For more details contact Leading Management Solutions at (407) 674-1916.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927