The bottom line is how to improve the bottom line.
As healthcare systems face similar obstacles across the country in a post-pandemic world, they are adopting their own ways of meeting such challenges and finding solutions to improve the bottom line.
Whether leaning on initiatives to improve patient length of stay, the adoption of new technology to free up clinical care, investing in the well-being of front-line staff members, eliminating waste, shoring up revenue cycle processes, intentional diversity hiring, or adopting proactive treatments to keep people out of the hospital in the first place, there are multiple ways healthcare leaders and their staff are standing up to headwinds in an attempt not only to survive but begin the slow process to thrive again.
Here are insights from eight leaders about how they and their teams are improving outcomes, financially and otherwise, by answering the following question: What is the smartest thing your team has done over the last 12 months to contribute to your system's bottom line?
RCM processes
"I would say that the one thing we have done is a deep dive/focus on all aspects of the revenue cycle," said Shelly Schorer, CFO of the California division of Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health. "This includes denial management, coding accuracy, documentation, timely filing, cash collections, payer receivables, follow-up and working large balance and clinically complex accounts."
Nick Rogers, president of revenue cycle at One Medical (New York City): "At One Medical, the revenue cycle and tech teams collaborated to develop automated copay collection functionality within our EHR, which made a dramatic improvement in copay collection rates."
Staff well-being and retention
"Focusing on staff's work-life balance by developing a 'mobile float pool' for employees who need maximum flexibility. We also have increased staff's paid time off and reinforced employee assistance and wellness programs, including offering an initiative targeting nurses' well-being," said David Verinder, president and CEO of Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System.
"The smartest thing any health system can do today is invest in its people," said Daniel Siegal, MD, vice chair of radiology at Henry Ford Health in Detroit. "This includes pipelines for training and developing new talent in a variety of areas (from support services all the way through care providers), and retaining them long term with programs and tools that support a modern versatile workforce."
Preventive care
"We treated opioid use disorder (OUD)," Holly Geyer, MD, chair of Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic's opioid stewardship program, told Becker's. "Dependence on opioids occurs in 3% to 19% of patients who ever receive the drug and complications are costing the U.S. healthcare system $35 billion annually. For every one opioid overdose, there are 4.3 ER, outpatient and inpatient visits for that patient, and those with OUD have 8 times higher annual healthcare costs and 12 times more ER visits than patients without the condition. If you want to save your bottom line, save your patients from these drug toxicities."
Other systems are focusing on improved efficiencies and higher quality in treating patients once they are in a clinical setting.
"Focus around emergency department throughput and inpatient LOS has allowed our team to increase earnings without the need for capital expenditure or new expense," said Matt Lutz, COO at HCA Florida Largo West Hospital.
"The most effective way to contribute to our system's bottom line is to have a laser focus on quality, safety, efficiency and patient experience," said Tanira Ferreira, MD, chief medical officer of the University of Miami Hospital and Clinics. "By focusing on improving quality, a favorable financial performance will be a natural occurrence."
At the end of the day, a genuine investment in a system's employees will truly help lead to improved bottom lines, according to one leader.
"A renewed focus on people and culture not just in words, but in dollars and genuine authenticity," Paul Coyne, DNP, APRN, senior vice president and chief nurse executive of New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery, told Becker's: "If there is a sincere and universal focus on people, the bottom line will improve as a byproduct. The inverse is not true. A spreadsheet simply shows the bottom line. It does not change it."
Further bottom line insights from other healthcare leaders, all of whom will speak at Becker's Annual Meeting in April, can be found here.