Read about the dilemna of shrinking top line revenue across most hospitals on USA Today. (Growth slows in health spending http://usat.me/39944492 )
Healthcare spending per person has fallen this year for the first time on record, down 0.2%, per the Bureau of Economic Analysis. How do hospitals continue to 'feed the machine,' pay the bills, and complete their building projects when the top-line revenue is literally shrinking? The most progressive hospital C-suites are taking lessons from their bretheren in the business community:
Reduce Expenses -- hospitals may reduce headcount in the non-clinical groups, but then service levels suffer, HCAHPS results drop, and then the top line becomes uncollectible. Lesson learned is that expense reductions cannot be taken at the sacrifice of customer service.
Outsource, and Expect More from Outsourcers -- hospitals experience efficiencies when specialty outsource organizations are hired and held accountable for improvements. The best outsourcers are experts within their field; focusing the hospital staff on clinical tasks, and measured commensurate with patient satisfaction.
Attract High-Paying Customers -- hospitals, like any business, needs to nurture their most profitable customers. Increasingly, Emergency Departments are becoming the hospitals' front door. If more than 60% of inpatients come through the Emergency Department, then why isn't more emphasis placed on the patients' first impression?
Errand Solutions specializes in providing expert customer service within hospitals. A single Errand Solutions Sanity Saver typically completes the work of 2.1 hospital FTE while increasing patient and employee satisfaction. There is a solution to shrinking top-line revenue: outsource to an expert like St. John did. Read about it here:
http://www.emspecialists.com/newsletter/EMS_Summer2010.pdf
