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.