How Can a Hospital Increase Healthcare Efficiency

Updated on April 28, 2021

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Improving efficiency in the healthcare sector is the single biggest thing you can do to increase patient satisfaction rates. To do this, hospitals are investing more money in technology than ever before, but your staff needs to use other practical measures to remedy specific problems in the healthcare sector. The following approaches could benefit both the industry and patients.

Healthcare Software Will Improve Efficiency Significantly

Over the last few years, healthcare software has gained popularity among clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations. Medical software is becoming more critical to the industry since it lets healthcare providers manage and monitor data. For example, you can track patient electronic records across different providers (different doctors, hospitals, laboratories, mental health specialists) and keep them in one place. The most popular of these includes:

  • Human Service Software: Human services case management software helps your agency support its community by managing service plans, tracking personal goals and medical outcomes. It can also create compliant cycles of documentation, billing, and reporting while also allowing you to collaborate with other doctors.
  • E-Prescribing Software: Electronic prescribing software allows medical professionals to send prescriptions directly to a pharmacy. This process’s accuracy and timeliness lead to no prescription errors, fewer lost documents, and more accurate care.
  • Urgent Care Apps: Urgent care applications or healthcare apps let patients skip the waiting room by accessing an online booking system and a chat video function. Patients can receive medical care from anywhere in the world at any time.
  • Healthcare CRM: A CRM software helps healthcare organizations create, develop and maintain relationships with their patients. Patient outreach can automate workflow and improve patient care because they provide relevant and accurate health information. Even patients with severe illnesses can benefit from CRM software. Incidental pulmonary nodule software will really help out your patients in getting them back into the hospital for routine checkups. 

Hospital management software, electronic health record software, and medical practice medical software work similarly to human service software but are practice-specific.

How to Increase Efficiency Through Organization and Training

Cross-Train as Much as Possible

Doctors, nurses, and surgeons all have their primary roles, but allowing your employees to cross-train in other roles can improve efficiency. For example, a nurse primarily draws blood, not a doctor, but if the nurse isn’t available, a doctor should complete a blood test if they’re able. Medical staff tend to have a lot of training and can accomplish a task out of their job description as long as they have the necessary knowledge and skill. To improve efficiency further, ask members of staff to complete outside training or modules for career movement.

Remove Redundancies

Using healthcare software can remove most redundancies, but it won’t make an inefficient worker quicker on their feet. Minor fixes in the diagnostic procedure can reduce wait times for patients and reduce the workload for multiple departments. One way to improve efficiency is to encourage faster communication between the front desk and nurses. If the nurse knows all of the patient’s symptoms ahead of time, they can administer the proper test and treatments.

Make Patient Safety Priority

Often, a patient may come to a medical professional and not know how to express the problem, when it started, or treatment options that may work. It’s the physician’s job to fill in these gaps for them, but it can be challenging to do this with the wrong information or inadequate training. Diagnosing the problem too early could make the patient sicker and will cause them to come back again for further examination, slowing down the process. It’s better to thoroughly screen the patient, remove risks related to prescription drugs, and create a welcoming environment to encourage and open discussion.

Create a Streamlined Decision-Making System

The final decision on a treatment option is usually up to one person in the hospital. The head team members, doctor, or dean will have control over all medical procedures, which is a positive for patients and medical staff as it reduces errors. However, it can take time to walk back and forth between team heads, so it’s crucial to create an app or messaging service where everyone can communicate instantly. An app can also help relay information, insights, and training unrelated to a current patient.

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The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.