HealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsDeliver custom or industry designed product training directly to patient and resident care environments to reinforce proper use.
View All ProductsTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream's solutions allow your healthcare workforce to be confident and competent with the knowledge they are upholding the highest of standards.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All ProductsMitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.
Learn MoreThere is tremendous room for improvement in how healthcare operates. Not only is the lack of workforce efficiency in healthcare a waste of resources that could be devoted to better care and helping more people, but sometimes it may even contribute to poor outcomes. According to Health Affairs, “approximately 30 percent [of what we spend on healthcare] can be attributed to wasteful or excess spending, including spending associated with unnecessary or inefficiently delivered services, excess administrative costs, prices that are too high, missed prevention opportunities, and fraud. Health care costs continue to increase faster than the GDP, impacting the budgets of federal, state, and city governments; employers; and individuals" (Pronovost et al, 2019).
The same article examines other industries’ efforts to reduce costs, splitting their measures into one of two options—using fewer services or increasing productivity. Healthcare has “largely focused on using fewer services. On the one hand, this is appropriate because the industry overuses many services, and some are harmful. On the other hand, no other industry solved its cost problems by simply consuming less; they also improved productivity" (Pronovost et al, 2019).
It is alarming that some technology adoptions in healthcare have actually led to declines in productivity. When they have occurred, small productivity gains may require care providers to work at a pace that is not sustainable. No healthcare organizations can afford an increased level of burnout among doctors and nurses, which is already something that is out of hand. Importantly, however, “Economic models suggest that if health care productivity could grow by 4 percent, we would solve the health care cost problem” (Pronovost et al, 2019).
Here are a few suggestions for making healthcare professionals and processes more efficient:
Hunting for supplies may take up to 20% of a nurse’s time. IT is time we came up with a solution for these activities that “add up to wasted time and unnecessary costs, induce safety risks to patients, and are disrespectful of nurses’ professionalism, contributing to dissatisfaction, burnout, and turnover” (Pronovost et al, 2019).
It is very important to verify dosage and administration involved with high-risk medications like narcotics or insulin. When done as recommended, a manual double check can take up an inordinate amount of nursing time. The solution is to adopt an “electronic double check [that] would be more effective and efficient than a human double check; it would reduce medication errors, avoid distraction errors in the second nurse, and result in labor savings” (Pronovost et al, 2019).
It is estimated that “On average, nurses answer a false alarm every 45 seconds from multiple devices used in support of patient care” (Pronovost et al, 2019). Devices need to be integrated into a single notification system so that time spent turning off an alarm doesn’t prevent responses when they need to occur.
Here’s where documentation requirements and EMRs have created more problems than they solve—"Clinicians spend up to half their time and several hours after work documenting in the EMR, contributing to physician burnout and its associated safety, productivity, and personal risks” (Pronovost et al, 2019). Automated documentation is needed badly.
Eliminate Human Labor Costs for Submitting and Processing a Claim
The business side of healthcare, from all sides, is a significant source of extra, unnecessary cost. By some estimates, “Hospitals’ administrative costs—including costs for submitting and processing claims—account for 25 percent of total spending on hospital care. Insurers and employers also incur significant costs for processing claims” (Pronovost et al, 2019). Electronic submission, uniform data guidelines, and a shared platform are a way to support efficiency in healthcare to reduce costs and frustration while advancing quality.
Every effort that improves efficiency in healthcare will create an opportunity to provide more and better care. Workforce efficiency in healthcare is a goal to which every organization in the industry must commit. In a world where costs continue to rise and the need for healthcare for an aging population continues to grow, we have no choice but to find ways to do things better, cheaper, and with more attention to quality.
HealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers professional training and education on how to best optimize your reimbursement process within your healthcare organization.
View All ReimbursementTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsImprove the preparedness of your staff, increase survival rates, and cut costs with the advanced resuscitation training services from HealthStream.
View All ResuscitationNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream's solutions allow your healthcare workforce to be confident and competent with the knowledge they are upholding the highest of standards.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsDelivers everything you need to request, gather, and validate information about a provider to create a single source of truth for downstream processes.
View All CredentialingMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All Scheduling & Capacity ManagementHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All Products