Hospitals are essential in society because they provide vital care and treat various diseases to keep citizens healthy. As per the American Hospital Association (AHA), there are 6,090 hospitals in the U.S. If you own a hospital, it is prudent to make sure it runs as efficiently as possible to reduce time wastage that can have life or death consequences. Additionally, making your facility more efficient can increase staff satisfaction and deliver an overall better patient experience. Here are some things you can do to improve your hospital’s efficiency.
Leverage healthcare answering services
Several hospitals have outpatient facilities where individuals go for everything. Consequently, if your hospital has small or understaffed units, the staff that deals with patient care might have to answer calls and schedule appointments in addition to their duties. This multitasking can help your medical practice get by, but it comes at the cost of diminished overall productivity. Thankfully, you can invest in medical answering services for your hospital to handle all calls. An answering service company can assist patients during business hours and after-hours alike. As such, they can handle the administrative tasks and free you to focus on patient care without getting sidetracked.
Fix RFID tags on equipment
A Nursing Times survey revealed that over a third of nurses spend at least an hour finding pieces of equipment during their average hospital shifts. This reality is troubling since patient care can be compromised if your staff doesn’t know the location of essential equipment needed to attend to patients. Your facility may even need to rent or replace these pieces of equipment if they disappear for good, increasing your operating costs. Therefore, consider using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to ensure that your equipment doesn’t go missing. Your staff can use an RFID system’s dedicated interface to monitor the real-time location of equipment they require. This way, they spend less time looking for equipment and can concentrate more on patient care.
Use continuous electronic monitoring (CEM) equipment
Patient monitoring is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of top-notch hospital treatment. Your medical staff must monitor patients’ vital signals to determine whether drugs and other interventions have the desired effects. However, it is incredibly time-consuming to manually check up on all the patients in your hospital at any given time. Fortunately, you can use CEM technology to stay on top of patient monitoring at all times. Several modern patient wearables can monitor changes and sync with alarm and notification solutions. This way, your medical staff will quickly learn about changes in patients’ conditions that demand immediate attention. The technology allows your workers to maximize their work hours by obtaining instant data that can be used to back care decisions. What’s more, CEM equipment also improves efficiency by lowering the time spent assessing vital signs.
Rely on software solutions
Many experts agree that advancements in healthcare delivery can be attributed to several software and systems and not just innovative equipment alone. Consequently, your medical practice needs to rely on software solutions that can help it monitor teams, generate reports, store essential data, among others. For instance, investing in the right hospital contract management software for you can track key financial metrics, measure payer performance, and boost your revenue.
