The next phase of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will lead to a sharp rise in patients, and automated capacity management solutions may be the answer to dealing with the influx, according to a TeleTracking blog post.
If the health insurance exchanges are indeed ready to begin offering enrollment into policies by the mandated date of Oct. 1, they will extend coverage to the first wave of nine million newly insured Americans beginning Jan. 1, 2014.
In 2014, hospitals will need to provide care to the newly insured under the PPACA as well as to an entire generation of baby boomers, who are currently turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 per day.
According to the blog post, hospitals need to be prepared for this increase in patient volume. Using automated capacity management solutions that allow hospitals to more effectively manage resources and increase operational efficiency may be the key to helping healthcare organizations deal with the inevitable spike in patient numbers.
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