Boost Efficiency in Your Healthcare Company
If you run a healthcare business, you will know that it can be a tough sector to run efficiently and make a decent profit in. There are a number of problems from missed appointments to healthcare fraud that make it tough to be as efficient as possible, but that does not mean you should give up trying.
Although healthcare businesses can be less efficient than other companies, there are lots of things you can do right now, to boost efficiency and hopefully see off some of the biggest problems in the sector once and for all.
With that in mind, here are some of the biggest and best efficiency boosters in healthcare right now:
Map your patient journey
If you want to be as efficient as possible, the first step is to work out what you are doing right now. The best way to do this is to start by mapping your patient journey.
What do I mean by this? Basically, you should assess what stages of consultation and treatment you take each patient through depending on why they are seeing you, so you can identify any areas of waste or any aspects of patient treatment that could be speeded up.
You should also take the time to audit the patient experience and what happens to them from the moment they enter your facility to the second they leave. After all, the more you know, the easier it will be to make positive changes in the future.
Increase patient autonomy
Something that many healthcare business owners get wrong is that they try to micromanage their patients to a significant degree. It is understandable that they might want to do this because the system can be complex. However, most patients are more than capable of handling things like scheduling their own appointments and updating their personal details without your input, so put automatic systems in place to make that possible, and you will instantly save countless man-hours that can be put to better use elsewhere in your facility.
Use appointment reminders
One of the biggest areas of waste in any healthcare setting is missed appointments. For whatever reason, many patients will fail to attend appointments. Often, it is simply down to them forgetting about their checkup or whatever, so something that can really help to increase efficiency in this area is a good HIPAA compliant appointment reminders system that will keep sensitive information confidential while sending out timely reminders to patients so that they are less likely to forget and more likely to turn up.
Switch to cloud computing
In terms of tech, something else that can help your healthcare business become more efficient is switching to a cloud computing system. Many healthcare business owners are wary of doing this because they worry that information on the cloud is not as secure, but that is really not the case, and if you move your electronic medical record over, you will see a noticeable increase in efficiency as patient data will be easier for staff to manage, and you won’t need to invest in as much expensive tech equipment which will need to be services and repairs, not to mention your staff trained on how to use it, too.
Outsource
Many healthcare business owners are also very wary about outsourcing any aspects of the company to a third party, but actually, this is becoming more common all the time, and it can really work well. Things lie admin, data collection, patient orientation, and wellbeing can all be outsourced to secure third parties and this is a great way of improving the patient journey as well as your company’s efficiency.
Invest in automation
Automation is a great way to save money in business, and if you think you cannot use automation in a healthcare setting, you are dead wrong. It is possible to automate things like appointment reminders, as mentioned above, prescription reminders, timekeeping, and even some aspects of customer service if you are willing to do so, and it could save you so much time and money if you do.
As you can see, there are so many ways you can make your healthcare business more efficient, but that will only happen if you take the time to implement them as soon as possible. You don’t have to implement all of the above today, but at the very least, you should start assessing your patient journey because that will tell you a lot about the efficiency of your company as it stands.
