Electronic Health Reporter

Operating a healthcare business these days is a constant balancing act between trying to ensure profitability and never compromising patient care in the face of ever-increasing legislation. It’s a tough position, and little wonder that businesses in this sector have some of the highest operating and administration costs.

But when cutting corners could mean the difference, quite literally, between life and death, it can be a challenge to identify areas that could be streamlined.

However, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done at all. There are savings to be made as some processes are extremely wasteful — you just have to approach it with a logical plan and think carefully through all the implications before taking action.

Identify Your Inefficient Processes

The fact is that money is often wasted on the wrong areas, and this can be dangerous when it causes spending to be restricted in other areas which are really key, such as staff training and development. To save money, you also have to know where to spend money, and things like ensuring the right tools for computational biologist and ongoing clinical training are critical.

Where you can take a closer look at ways to increase profitability are areas like administration, where processes are quite often overly-complex and not patient-friendly. Although meeting the requirements of a complex regulatory landscape remains a central challenge for those working in healthcare, we shouldn’t let it become a barrier to streamlining paperwork and administration processes, which can often benefit hugely from a certain degree of automation, especially as software becomes smart enough to easily handle more complicated businesses.

Introducing A Software-Led Approach

Technology has evolved to the point where there are many healthcare industry-specific software applications that have been specifically created to handle the nuances of the business. The key is to put patient care at the heart of it all. Introducing some automated elements doesn’t have to mean compromising the experience – on the contrary, it should be used to free up some more time to focus on adding the human touch which is an essential component of providing excellent service.

Increasing efficiency and performance, improving outcomes and creating behavioural change should be seen as something positive. Digital patient records and administrative processes, online resources covering information and support, offering telehealth and mobile platforms, and using big data analytics can offer a superior level of care by allowing your healthcare business to be there for people as and when they need you at what may well be a difficult time.

That technology can enhance their experience and not become a barrier to it is very possible, provided you approach it from that perspective.

Implementing an Asset Tracking Solution

There are hundreds of assets which make up your medical practice — from pharmaceutical to office furniture, testing and diagnostics to medical equipment — it’s all a vital part of your operations. Asset tracking solutions offer a way for you to keep better track of all your parts, and ensure that you have the information to operate your facility in the most cost-effective way.

Guesswork becomes a thing of the past — you can clearly visualize where inefficiencies are occurring. Employees can access equipment they need quickly and reliably and obsolescence and upgrading can become a much more planned process.

This incremental approach can lead to big savings across the board as well as creating a better working experience for staff and freeing up human resource to focus on patient care.