The acceleration of telehealth and remote healthcare has strained traditional operations, but there have been various benefits to telehealth that standard care cannot provide.
The evolution from in-person visitations to more remote options has seen an increase in the number of people able to be seen on any given day and a decrease in the overhead needed to see a patient.
And lower overhead means less costs passed onto the patients, making healthcare more affordable and eliminating roadblocks that many had complained about when seeking treatment in the past.
In other words, telehealth has given patients more access to quality care, improving the overall health of patients in return.
And healthcare organizations that are embracing the remote aspect of healthcare are improving their patient experience, making the organization more competitive as a result.
To improve your organization’s healthcare operations and enhance your patients’ experience, your outfit needs to strategize ways to make care and treatment more efficient.
Improved efficiencies allow for more access, better treatment, and lower costs, and improve the customer’s perception of their care provider.
There are five keys to making healthcare more efficient.
Provide Employee Training
Training your staff to emphasize customer service and developing the skills crucial to the department operations they work within is the most important component of improving organizational efficiency.
Improving how you provide and deliver quality care begins with employees feeling confident in their roles, understanding the processes and systems installed, and being able to answer any situation and question that a patient may have.
Patient care is the priority, but having proper customer service training for each department will highlight your organization and provide the best care and patient experience possible.
Emphasize Patient Safety And Care
Healthcare acts as a frontline in dealing with societal and health concerns. Unfortunately, one only has to look at the past couple of years to see healthcare workers’ difficulties.
That said, emphasizing patient safety and care helps ease patients’ anxieties about their health care, improving their perception of their care.
Additionally, when paired with training and education, a systematic approach to safety and care helps eliminate issues in treatment that may lead to concerns of misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment costs.
Reduce Redundancies
The adage “time is money” in health care is only partially true. Dealing with people’s health can cost money but also lead to severe health concerns.
Another issue with redundancies is that they can lead to cost overruns but also add to ineffective treatment. Therefore, it’s critical to be as efficient in inpatient treatment as possible.
Reducing redundancies, like filling out multiple forms in multiple departments, can lower treatment times.
- Improved Management Software–enhance scheduling and operations
- Polling Software–to gain better insights into operations
- Improved Point-of-Sale Systems–better customer communication and billing
- Database and Customer Service Software–Track and keep customer records accurately
- Integrated Operational Systems–better communication between all departments
Enhance Coordination Between Departments
In most instances, multiple individuals are involved in treatment for a patient’s healthcare. That means various staff, nurses, and doctors may be involved, some from numerous departments. The more individuals and departments affected, the greater the possibility of redundancies, inefficient processes, and slower treatment times, all conditions for lower patient care and satisfaction.
By creating better coordination between departments, you can eliminate potential risks and improve a patient’s experience.
Reducing times for treatment and discharging improves the patient experience in your organization as well as patient healthcare in general.
Improve Decision-Making Systems
Improving all aspects of your healthcare organization includes improving the administration’s decision-making processes within each department. As healthcare trends and needs evolve, how you adapt and enhance your decision-making will either act as a catalyst for more efficient treatment or be left behind.
Having input from patients and employees within the organization can assist management in improving the decision-making processes necessary. In addition, you can conduct patient and employee outreach, utilize polling software and reach out to efficiency experts for consultation.
Improving the patient experience starts with training and educating staff with an emphasis on customer service. As you improve the interactions with your patients, performing back-end administrative improvements such as improved communication between departments will only enhance patient care and their experience.
Focusing on customer service is crucial to improving the perspective of healthcare in general, and lowering inefficiencies in care helps make better-quality care more accessible and affordable.
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.
