Dan Neuwirth
Chief Operating Officer, Agility Healthcare Solutions
Economists are saying that the U.S. is already in a recession – and blaming the federal government for waiting too late to issue an economic stimulus package. In order to ward off the wave of foreclosures, this needed to happen at the end of 2007, not this spring. Similarly, presidential hopeful John McCain recently criticized the government’s failure to prioritize and repair the Minneapolis bridge to prevent its collapse in 2007.
There is a price for putting things off. Yet everyone does it, dealing with the crisis at hand and ignoring the one looming on the horizon. As hospitals are confronted with numerous challenges, they could stand to learn from the government’s delayed reactions.
While the health care industry is often said to be “recession-proof,” it also has a reputation for being slow to change. Unfortunately, with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement changes going to into effect in less than six months, there is no more time to wait. CMS is looking to add more changes in 2009, so now, with the bottom line at stake, hospitals need to take greater strides in improving clinical quality.
As CMS expands quality reporting requirements and eliminates reimbursement for an increasing number of “never events,” hospitals must eliminate the process issues that lead to clinical errors and poor quality of care. Hospitals will need to make technology investments to enable the process improvements necessary to minimize errors and improve patient flow. When overcrowded emergency departments are the norm, oversights occur more often. In surgical services departments, poor patient flow visibility and process bottlenecks negatively impact clinical outcomes.
Many problems can be diminished when organizations have a comprehensive view of the situation. Hospitals are a lot like bridges – postponing improvements and repairs can have life or death consequences.
