Payer
As a payer, you find yourself in an untenable situation as your medical expenses have skyrocketed over the past several years, causing you to pass on these cost increases to your membership base in the form of premium increases. You are repeatedly reminded that any attempt to contain provider reimbursements will lead to a decrease in quality or access or both. One reason this is true is that extreme artificial variability in patient flow is tolerated and left unmanaged. The result is that expensive resources such as inpatient beds, operating rooms, cardiac catheterization labs, staff, and so on face excessive demand at times and are significantly underutilized at other times. The consequent low average utilization of such assets drives up cost and simultaneously decreases access and quality. In such an environment any attempt to cut costs further decreases access and quality.
Arnold Milstein, MD, MPH Medical Director, Pacific Business Group on Health; National Health Care Thought Leader, Mercer Health and Benefits; MedPAC Commissioner.
The science of operations management and IHO’s recommended approach for patient flow variability management offer a number of tools to address these intractable issues. For example, by appropriately managing the flow of patients and organizing resources to meet the needs of the different types of patients, one hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, was able to increase its annual revenue potential by $137M without adding resources and also avoided a $100M capital expense. This increase in throughput was achieved alongside decreased waiting times and improved patient and provider satisfaction.
Helen Darling; President, National Business Group on Health
Cost reduction through optimal patient Flow Variability Management Healthcare Cost Corner
Hospital costs can be decreased by millions of dollars annually by adopting the Institute for Healthcare Optimization’s approach to managing variability in healthcare delivery.
Case Study
See how Cincinnati Children’s Hospital increased annual revenue by $137M, and avoided $100M in cost, while improving quality of care.
Resources
Joint Commission Resources Book
The IHO’s approach to managing variability in healthcare delivery is the central theme of Joint Commission Resources’ new book.
See Commission Results
IOM Report: Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended IHO Variability Methodology as one of the six principles to address the compelling issue of access to healthcare.
Get the Report