5 BASIC HOSPITAL INEFFICIENCIES
AND THEIR QUICK FIXES
AND THEIR QUICK FIXES
by Julie Henry
Hospital
inefficiencies not only interfere with workflow, but also cost hospitals billions
of dollars each year. A recent Ponemon Institute survey of more than 400
healthcare providers found that inadequate communication alone has an estimated
annual economic impact of around $1.75 million per US hospital and more than
$11 billion industry-wide.
Although
many of the issues that lead to inefficiency may be complex, there are still
some quick fixes that can add up to huge savings in both staff time and money.
Here are some of the most common hospital inefficiencies and some simple
strategies that can help to correct them:
1.
Inadequate communication methods.
The
results of the Ponemon Institute survey found that the primary reasons for
communication challenges were the inefficiency of pagers, the inability to use
text messaging and lack of Wi-Fi availability. Survey respondents agreed that
the use of secure text messaging could increase productivity and minimize the
economic loss by about 50%. This would amount to an annual savings of $875,000
per hospital.
2.
Duplicate documentation requirements.
Eliminating
inefficiencies in documentation methods allow clinicians to spend more time
with patients and also helps with patient flow. The first step in eliminating
inefficiencies might be to conduct a brief staff/provider survey aimed at
identifying existing duplicate documentation requirements. If duplications
exist within your EHR system, work with your EHR provider to eliminate them. If
duplications are related to paper charts and/or the use of a combination of
paper and electronic records, develop more streamlined standardized forms,
omitting the duplicate requirements.
3.
Poor patient flow.
Dealing
with a large number of patients moving in and out of the hospital and from one
department to another will inevitably lead to patient flow issues. To help
hospitals address these issues, the Institute of Healthcare Improvement has
developed a white paper titled Optimizing Patient Flow: Moving Patients
Smoothly Through Acute Care Settings. According to the IHI, the key to
improving flow is to redesign system-wide processes that impact flow. Some of
the IHI's recommended strategies include evaluating patient flow by reviewing
occupancy and 'parking' of patients, designating separate ORs for scheduled and
unscheduled surgeries and providing a process for scheduling the date and time
of patient discharge at least one day in advance.
4.
Inappropriate hospital admissions and lengths of stay.
Practitioners
sometimes admit patients to the hospital or keep them longer than necessary
because they don't have an alternative place to send them. Providing
practitioners with a list of resources (e.g., social workers, nursing homes,
behavioral healthcare centers, skilled nursing centers, rehabilitation
services) may help to reduce or eliminate this problem.
5.
Incomplete medication reconciliation.
Inadequate
or incomplete medication reconciliation can lead to medication errors. One of
the reasons hospitals have difficulty with medication reconciliation is that
patients are often poor historians when it comes to their medications, which
makes it difficult to develop a complete 'entry' list. Asking the patient to bring
his/her medication bottles to the hospital and contacting the patient’s primary
care provider and pharmacy can help you to build a more accurate list. Another
major barrier to medication reconciliation is lack of an adequate process for
reconciling medications at each point of care. Developing standardized forms
and adding hard stops to your EHR system can help to ensure that the medication
list is being updated during each care transition.
Source: HealthcareDIVE
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