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 ProductsBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsDeliver custom or industry designed product training directly to patient and resident care environments to reinforce proper use.
View All ProductsStop wasting money on RCM issues. Learn how to Provide your team with expert-led revenue cycle training to help them reduce denied claims, reimbursement mistakes, and more.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsOnline clinical placement software allows schools, healthcare organizations, and students to seamlessly manage clinical and nursing rotations.
View All ProductsTackle all the challenges of provider directory management within a health plan with a single solution tailored to your specific needs.
View All ProductsOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsFinally, a comprehensive resource to support collecting, storing, and sharing credentialing data with ease.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All ProductsHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
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 healthcare training solutions support medical training initiatives and allow for 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 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 & ComplianceBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsUtilize patient access solutions and advanced reimbursement solutions to manage clinical denials and improve your organization’s reimbursement strategy.
View All ReimbursementExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsOnline clinical placement software allows schools, healthcare organizations, and students to seamlessly manage clinical and nursing rotations.
View All ProductsComprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validates health outcomes and supports provider assessment.
View All CredentialingOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All SchedulingHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
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