Best And Worst Times For A Hospital Visit

Almost everyone has experienced a hospital visit with either a long wait time or a short one and the amount of time you wait for treatment has many variables but according to a study from the American Heart Association, it might just be the time of day. While going to the hospital isn't something that is generally planned, the time of day and year may affect patient wait time. In the study, the American Heart Association took a look at heart attack patients that arrived at a hospital and recorded their wait time. Keep in mind that the American Heart Associate's guidelines recommend the administering of an angioplasty within 90 minutes or less.

The study found that patients who arrive at a hospital on weekends, weeknights or holidays have a 13 percent greater risk of a fatal outcome than those who arrive during regular business hours. While no one can predict when a heart attack will happen, patients who arrived during those times had an average wait of 72 minutes compared to 56 minutes during regular business hours. However, both time frames are within the guidelines of the angioplasty procedure. And of course, patients should not wait to go to the hospital for any situation even if the emergency is during the night or on the weekend.

But what causes the increased wait time? Some suggest that more people are prone to injury from things like burning their hand while cooking dinner during the weeknight, experiencing food poising during holiday meals and perhaps sports related injuries on the weekends. These types of incidents can 'clog' up the waiting room and increase wait time. But there are other factors that can lead to unnecessary wait time like paperwork, filing and other administrative duties.

As medical science advances and society moves more and more towards technology driven lifestyles, hospitals have the potential to reduce wait times by fixing outdated work procedures. Output management can help reduce paperwork and processing forms which can account for a large portion of time when a patient is in the waiting room. With the reduction of manual paper forms and mundane tasks, hospitals can treat patients sooner, no matter if it's a weeknight, weekend or holiday. 

Patient Expectations in Hospitals Matter

The healthcare industry is becoming more consumer-driven and the growing population of health-conscious consumers is shifting the way hospitals work. Patient expectations are changing and this movement is pressuring healthcare organizations to re-evaluate their operations to better suit the needs of today's modern patient. Ever since the 2008 introduction of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, consumers have the ability to review and report patient satisfaction data that will provide valid comparisons of hospitals around the country.

Since HCAHPS' emergence, a 32-item survey is filled out and those scores and answers are available for display, giving consumers a first-hand look at how well patients are treated. From things like communication to how fast their experience was, the survey gives a detailed perspective of what others could expect. A patient's perception of care depends on their own observations of how well hospital employees work with each other, their performance and their commitment to quality care. Those hospitals who had highly engaged, team-oriented employees received high scores so it's not a surprise that the more motivated and enthusiastic hospitals rank better than others.

However, there are many reasons why other hospitals scored lower and one of them may be the lack of patient attention. This may not be due to negligence, but it could be due to outdated hospital workflows and processes that take precious time away for things like paperwork. To increase patient attention which will in turn, increase HCAHPS scores, hospitals need to invest in workflow automation software, print management systems and paperless, electronic documents.

Essentially, those above systems and updates will bring hospitals up to speed to meet the demands of the 21^st century. Too much time is spent on administrative activities like paperwork and document filing that those hospital employees could devote the time to the patient. Not only will it increase time spent with a patient, but it will also reduce costs because a significant amount of paper will no longer be needed. The data found in HCAHPS surveys can negatively impact patient expectations if the scores are bad and in order for hospitals to remain competitive, changes need to be made.

Making Positive Gains In The Healthcare Industry

The numbers are in and 2014 fared well for the healthcare industry as it added over 300,000 jobs according to an article in Forbes. It should also be noted that the US unemployment rate is down to the lowest rate it has been in 6.5 years, which can call for 2015 to be promising! The report shows more than a 50 percent increase in job growth in the healthcare industry when comparing the numbers from 2013. As employment rises in the healthcare industry, health-conscious consumers could expect better hospital performance as more people are now being staffed to accommodate more health-related needs.

A reason for the employment increase suggests that the Affordable Care Act had a significant part in its positive gains because more people were able to become insured, meaning more people were seeking medical treatment since they had coverage. As more staff started to serve newly insured patients, it would be without a doubt that hospital expenses may be on the rise in terms of paper documents, administrative duties and other workflow operations. With this being said, hospitals could continue to show work efficiencies by implementing new ways to handle documents.

By switching hospital forms to electronic forms, they could save an enormous amount of money when it comes to ordering paper. This in turn, also reduces the environmental impact that hospitals produce because it saves a large amount of resources that are needed to form paper. Keeping up with the increased demand of patient visits due more being insured, digital hospital forms can improve workflows and make for better operations. In fact, the number of uninsured Americans is at a historically low rate!

But don’t think electronic hospital forms are only for those traditional hospitals – a rise in urgent care clinics around the country could also benefit from electronic forms to lower their operating costs. These smaller clinics could benefit from technology that simplifies forms and makes them more readily available with on-demand access. While 2014 was a positive year for job growth in the healthcare industry, it only makes sense to find solutions that can complement the growth. 

4 Ways To Improve Hospital Competitiveness and Patient Satisfaction

You may not think of it often, but hospitals and healthcare organizations are businesses too. Their main focus may be the treatment and care of a patient, but they also have some money to make. With the recent emergence of minute clinics and urgent care centers, there has been a rise in competition in terms of business. At the end of the day, patients are consumers of healthcare and their choice for where they seek treatment is a big deal. Minute clinics and urgent care centers are commonly known for their ‘faster’ treatment capabilities which can be the reason why some patients chose the latter instead of a hospital.

With this being said, hospitals need to become more competitive and improve satisfaction in order to hold their market share. Check out these four ways hospitals can speed up their admittance rates and increase patient satisfaction.

1. Patient-Friendly Technologies             

Generally speaking, any time a patient goes for a visit, there is a large amount of paperwork to be completed before admittance. By integrating smart technologies, like electronic forms, patients can quickly submit information via tablet or some other computing device while waiting to be seen.

2. Print Management

On the other end, healthcare workers must print out wristbands, documents and other paper forms that can consume precious time. In order to speed up the delivery time of paper forms, print management solutions can streamline printing duties. This has a domino effect because it will translate into quicker patient admittance and hasten other workflows.

3. Modern Feel

No one likes waiting around in a dry, dusty and bland waiting room. By designing and renovating a welcoming waiting room, patients will get a better sense of treatment if they are in an area planned to be comfortable. By providing conveniences like WiFi, comfortable seating and a lounge type area, waiting would not be perceived as bad as it is.

4. More Time With Doctors

By increasing the overall speed and efficiency of patient wait times, doctors should be able to increase time spent with the patient. By allowing for more time to talk about an ailment, patients will be more satisfied with their visit and likely to return in the future if another medical issue arises.

While staying competitive is a big deal, hospitals do have advance technologies at their disposal to improve overall workflows, the challenge is integrating them!

Revolutionizing Healthcare Organizations

The healthcare industry is a major driving force to the American lifestyle because they provide thousands of jobs, save lives and send billions of dollars, if not trillions, into the economy. However, the healthcare industry spends billions of dollars, if not trillions, each year providing medical care because it’s an expensive practice that consumes valuable resources. Before you start thinking about the complicated surgeries, procedures and the expensive medications, think about another factor that costs healthcare organizations a ton of money: paper.

Now you may not think that paper is a big deal or is an important role at a healthcare organization. But paper is used to print patient records, it’s used for patients to fill out forms and there just is an unnecessary amount of paper flow that occurs every day. Why would this matter? Because cutting costs where they will not sacrifice jobs can save patients and the healthcare organization a lot of money would be cost effective. We live in the technology age, so why aren't we utilizing it at its fullest potential? This means paper can be cut out of healthcare organizations by initiating the use of automated healthcare solutions that turnprinted documents in digital files.

Streamlining paperwork to be performed on a digital format can save money, the environment and even speed up healthcare response time. Think of the last time you were in the waiting room and had to fill out a bunch of paperwork – it probably took some time and even caused you some frustration. Imagine that step falling out of the process, patients could see faster care and lowered costs. There are a few different automated healthcare solutions that are possible to implement in any organization. Take for instance a registration kiosk in the lobby of a hospital – this type of technology could speed up the registration time and automatically check you into the hospital with pre-admit forms that help schedule your visit.

Something as simple as a kiosk would make it easier for patients to check in and reduce the amount of time wasted filling out paper forms. Healthcare organizations all over the country should start phasing out paperwork and get a jump on the 21^st century.

So Much Paper So Little Time

No matter what industry you work in, printing out documents can sometimes be a hassle especially if you work in a multi-floored hospital with a huge network of computers and printers. Getting the documents and printed materials you need can sometimes create huge inefficiencies that cost time and money. Considering that 30% of hospital staff time is spent on administrative activities, like processing forms, that crucial time could be used elsewhere in the organization.

With print management software,hospitals and other healthcare providers can benefit from streamlined programs that make administrative services much more efficient. Think about all the printed forms that come from different areas of the hospital like the human resource department, clinical areas and the administrative space. Those facets are critically important to get the proper document in the hands of who need it most.

Choosing the right printing solution will help create a repository of workflows and forms on demand, keeping pace with the utmost urgency that most hospitals work under. A server-based solution can work behind the scenes and capture the data that is sent between systems and automatically generate the documents you need to print. This eliminates the cost of pre-printed forms which helps conserve the environment and saves money on paper purchases and ink. Additionally, a well executed print management system will give greater control over forms standardization and vastly speed up the admissions process for incoming patients.

According to a recent article, patients wait 4 or more hours on average in the emergency room! Cutting back wasted time with inefficient hospital documents could drastically reduce that average and help patients get the care they need in a quicker manner. As wait times increase, patient satisfaction drops and could likely make them agitated or annoyed that they were not taken care of in a timely manner. This creates a domino effect because it may be the potential for some hostile interaction from the patient towards the medical team. Simply put, print management software has numerous benefits that range from cost savings, time savings and better patient satisfaction.