Aligning a hospital's financial goals with its quality standards is the key to delivering results for future chief quality officers, experts remarked during an Oct. 19 panel held by the National Association for Healthcare Quality.
"One of the things that I believe in is if we're providing high-quality, safe, clinical care consistently — as we should be — then we'll meet all the regulatory and accreditation compliance components, because they all fall into place nicely; which then leads us down the path to maximizing our reimbursement component," Bert Thurlo-Walsh, vice president and chief quality officer of Milford (Mass.) Regional Medical Center said during the webinar.
But, as a chief quality officer, eyeing ways to deliver high-quality care while reducing costs by trimming inefficient services, eliminating waste — and ultimately avoiding patient harm also requires significant investment of both time and budget. However, the experts underscored that investment will ultimately yield positive results for healthcare organizations.
Even as hospitals nationwide face mounting financial pressures, leaders in quality roles at these institutions should still prioritize matching financial and quality goals up because ultimately, "Hospitals, we're all struggling financially, but how much worse could it be if we took our eye off of quality and safety?" said Randy Harmatz, chief quality officer for the Nicklaus Children's Health System.