COVID broke healthcare systems all over the world. The times are not easy for hospitals and other health institutions presently because margins are tightening, debt is on the increase, and medical systems are overwhelmed and can’t seem to catch a break. Revenue mismanagement can easily lead to bankruptcy if you’re not careful. To keep everything operating at maximum capacity and earn a good profit, you need to establish a steady income flow and improve hospital performance management. Here are several ways that you can do that.
Hospital performance management myths
One of the main modern misconceptions is that everyone can perform at the same level if provided with proper training. This opinion, however, disregards the factors of talent and/or skill. For example, surgeons are a special breed. This profession requires an outstanding ability to acquire knowledge about the human physique and a steady hand and physical stamina that can withstand lengthy operating procedures. You also need to remain cool under pressure and be able to react quickly when necessary. The mentioned misconception doesn’t take these factors into account and subjects the employees to identical performance measures – their experience levels.
This often comes off as a problem in hospitals, seeing how each and every employee peer has gone through the identical amount of training as the next one, and the “talent fit” factor can often be cruel and ruthless in these terms. It is important to be kept in mind that lives are at stake in hospitals and that the egos of the employees pale in significance when put side-by-side against the patients’ health and lives. Naturally, the “talent fit” shouldn’t be regarded as the single most important hospital performance measurement factor. Still, it should be given an equal amount of relevance as the factor of experience and training. In other words, the best way to improve the performance measurement in hospitals is to select proper managers for the job – employees who will be able to rank other employees in accordance with all relevant factors.
Optimize the facilities
Management isn’t only about people management. It’s about resource management as well. To ensure that the hospital is working at optimum capacity, you need to think about introducing money-saving measures. One of the easiest ways to do this is simple: switch out fluorescent light installations with LED lights. Since hospitals are institutions that need to be lit pretty much 24/7, the type of installations you use can greatly impact the electricity bill.
One of the best types of LEDs you can choose are installations like BUCK’s luminaires for hospital rooms and other medical facilities because of their quality. As a winner of the Award for Excellence in Medical Lighting Solutions, this is one of the industry standards that has helped many hospitals cut down on electricity costs without sacrificing good lighting. Regardless of which brand you end up choosing, it’s important to introduce cost-cutting measures, especially now that the world is slowly sinking into a global recession.
Doctors aren’t your only staff
On the contrary, nurses are often greater in numbers. Although a doctor has a higher degree of education, a nurse is often more experienced at dealing with more regular physical injuries, which definitely makes them more than mere helpers. Unfortunately, managing a staff made up of hourly employees is extremely difficult in general, and when it comes to healthcare institutions, there really is no closing time.
Without being able to schedule nurses effectively, many hospitals lose a ton of money each year, further leading to low nurse retention rates. Having a proper nurse rotation schedule can boost employee morale and reduce frustration, which is vital in the healthcare system. Using software is the best way to go here, seeing how this completely eliminates the human error margin.
Trend and benchmark
Without trending and benchmarking your data, you won’t be able to identify which areas need improvement in your revenue cycle. Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) is the best way to do this – it works by combining data from your disparate IT systems (HR, patient satisfaction, clinical, financial systems, etc.) and optimizing it for analysis. This will help you get a better understanding of the results and spot root problems in certain areas.
The other important factor in hospital revenue cycle management is comparing your results to other healthcare systems, which can be solved by purchasing benchmarking data. If you are looking to set aside a small part of your budget, MAP (Measure, Apply, Perform) initiative from HFMA (Healthcare Financial Management Association) is an excellent choice.
Managing a hospital isn’t like managing a mere business – the factors are different, and the risks are far greater. By ebbing away from hospital performance management myths, paying attention to the nurses, optimizing the facilities, and always looking into in-detail monthly data summaries, you are making sure that your hospital is well-managed and stable.
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