According to 2022 Fierce Healthcare report, “Anywhere from 53% to 68% of the nation’s hospitals will end 2022 with their operations in the red versus the 34% reported in 2019.”1 These negative operating trends have persisted into 2023. Labor costs are a significant contributor to the negative operating trends. 2
In the market today, there are at least 14 unique technology verticals in healthcare and 5-50 companies within each vertical making it difficult to know which to explore. Then, there is the added complexity of knowing how to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is no shortage of well-meaning consumer grade products that fall woefully short of meeting the challenges within healthcare. Below is a short list of technology innovations that have the most potential to decrease labor costs.
#1 is virtual care for patients suffering with a chronic condition. These solutions provide wellness services to your patients virtually at home between doctor visits. Many of these solutions have health coaches, remote patient monitoring, logistics support, and serve as an adjunct to ambulatory care managers and/or primary care physicians. In addition to providing more services to patients, these solutions will free up your most valuable assets—your clinicians to do high value work.
#2 is transition of care communication enablers in acute and post-acute care. These solutions enable timely communication of pertinent information between the plan and/or providers. When correctly deployed, will allow for timely accurate treatment decisions to be made so that patients can transition to the next site of care or home. In addition, has the potential to free up your physicians & nurses from wasteful administrative tasks so they can focus on patients that are medically complex and at risk.
Over the last 10 years of advisory work, I've consistently seen a 2x to 5x return on investment within 12-36 months when these two solutions are implemented appropriately. Please let me know what you think. Like or comment below.
About the author: Jeff Lewis is an RN consultant at NextGen Executive Consultants LLC 1. Hospitals' 'unsustainable' 2022 losses forcing service closures(fiercehealthcare.com) 2. Cost-of-Caring-2023-The-Financial-Stability-of-Americas-Hospitals-and-Health-Systems-Is-at-Risk.pdf (aha.org)
Comments