How Technology Benefits Healthcare Operations and Patients
To deliver the best possible patient outcomes, the healthcare industry must operate at the intersection of science and supply chain management. Efficient medical practice procurement allows healthcare services providers to concentrate on wellness and recovery while other operational teams work behind the scenes to preserve supply safety and cost efficiency. This strategy ensures healthcare system facilities—such as hospitals, dentists, doctor’s offices, urgent care centers, and specialist clinics—have consistent access to the items required to maintain effective operations.
Technology offers helpful methods for aiding doctors, nurses, technicians, and administrators in focusing on patient experience while other staff members work to keep the facility functional and financially sound. This article looks at healthcare operations management and offers best practices and technology-focused tools to ensure operational excellence.
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What is healthcare operations management?
Healthcare operations management includes designing, managing, and optimizing processes within healthcare facilities to provide efficient delivery of services to patients. Operations management considers the following activities:
- Patient management
- Staffing
- Budgeting
- Scheduling
- Purchasing
- Quality of healthcare
The primary goal of healthcare operations management is to improve patient outcomes by enhancing service quality and operations. Effective healthcare operations require the right technology to organize and align the many stakeholders within a healthcare organization. This includes administrators, doctors, nurses, case workers, contractors, suppliers, patient advocates, and plant workers (like food service teams, cleaning staff, and security teams).
Key components of healthcare operations
Healthcare operations unite diverse departments and specialties to form an efficient operational foundation. Coordinating efforts across medical, administrative, and support services ensures facilities can keep patient care quality high while managing the necessary financial and operational aspects of the institution.
When analyzing and planning for healthcare operations, the following core areas should be prioritized:
- Clinical care management: Clinical care management means coordinating patient care activities, treatments, case management, and services to ensure the best results. The clinical team carries out assessment, planning, facilitation, care coordination, evaluation, and advocacy to provide options and services that meet patient needs.
- Risk management: For hospitals to effectively manage patient care, they must also manage personal and organizational risk. These efforts include identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential issues to establish patient safety and minimize liability. By addressing issues that could lead to adverse outcomes, business management and risk avoidance help protect both patients and healthcare providers.
- Financial management: A hospital is a place for healing, but it’s also a business. Financial planning is a complex aspect of healthcare operations that impacts patients, caregivers, administrators, and contractors. This finance team is key to maintaining cost-effective purchasing that enables high-quality care and consistent employee experiences.
The Procurement Strategy Playbook for Modern Businesses
Learn the key pillars of a strong strategy, valuable procurement metrics to track, and initiatives you can start implementing today.
5 Strategies for effective healthcare operations management
There’s always room for quality improvement in operations. The right mix of strategies and technology can open the door to a better understanding of how an institution functions and uses resources, as well as help facilities identify methods for enhancing patient care and profitability.
Here are five strategies high-performing healthcare venues use to ensure organizational growth and improvement:
1. Taking a data-driven approach
Software and AI have made it easier to embrace data and predictive data analytics for FinOps in every setting. Data insights present avenues to improve patient care, streamline operations, and forecast future trends for better cash utilization. Using analytics to drive operations improvements can lead to more personalized patient care plans, optimized staff and resource scheduling, and improved financial operations performance.
2. Enhancing patient experience
Ensuring patient-centered care includes improving communication, reducing wait times, and using technology to assist in planning and task execution. The following patient-experience efforts help improve patient satisfaction:
- Electronic health records (EHRs) for easy access to patient information
- Online billing services that make collecting and recording payments easier
- Telehealth services for remote consultations and check-ins
What happens behind the scenes also impacts patient experience, from the availability of staff to the stock levels of inventory and consumables used in care. Streamlining administrative and operational processes for procurement and outside services (such as catering, cleaning, and facilities) leaves more time to address patient care and experience.
3. Strengthening team collaboration
Communication is critical to balancing care across departments and providers. Fostering a collaborative environment among healthcare professionals is easier by undergoing regular training sessions, participating in team-building activities, and using collaborative software tools. Encouraging multidisciplinary teams to work together can enhance problem-solving capabilities and innovation.
Consider using centralized communications technology to keep everyone in the loop. A centralized system specially designed for healthcare settings can help the many departments and functions in the hospital stay aligned and maintain adequate coverage and balance.
4. Optimizing supply chain management
Streamlining supply chain processes is increasingly possible by adopting just-in-time inventory systems, negotiating better terms with suppliers, and leveraging technology for tracking real-time inventory levels. Efficient supply chain management can significantly reduce healthcare costs and improve the availability of necessary medical supplies.
5. Compliance monitoring
Regularly reviewing compliance with healthcare laws and regulations can help healthcare facilities avoid fines and penalties. Implementing a comprehensive compliance program can help identify potential issues before they become problematic.
By focusing on these strategies, healthcare organizations can enhance their operational efficiency, improve patient care outcomes, maintain financial stability, and ensure a positive working environment for employees.
Group purchasing organizations and healthcare operations
A group purchasing organization (GPO) is a collective that allows healthcare providers to join forces in purchasing medical supplies and equipment. By pooling their buying power, members can negotiate lower prices with manufacturers and suppliers, leading to significant cost savings and improved access to quality healthcare products.
Despite the economies of scale at work in a GPO and the positive impact on pricing, it's important to consider the following potential drawbacks before using one for healthcare ordering:
Limited product selection: GPOs often negotiate contracts for a limited range of products, which may restrict members' access to the full spectrum of medical supplies and equipment available. This can lead to challenges in acquiring specific or specialized items needed for certain treatments or procedures.
Dependency on contracts: Healthcare organizations might become too complacent with GPO contracts, causing them to miss out on better deals or innovative products not covered under current agreements.
Minimum purchase requirements: To benefit from the negotiated discounts, members may be required to meet minimum purchase volumes, which could lead to overstocking issues or financial strain for smaller healthcare providers. The need to make out-of-contract purchases may also hurt a facility's ability to meet minimums.
Reduced flexibility: Joining a GPO can sometimes mean sacrificing individual bargaining power and flexibility. Healthcare organizations may find themselves bound by the terms and product selections dictated by the group's decisions.
Fees and membership costs: While being part of a GPO can lead to savings on purchases, members often have to pay fees or share a portion of the savings with the organization. These costs can offset some of the financial benefits.
Potential for conflicts of interest: There could be instances where the interests of the GPO and its members do not fully align, especially if the organization receives incentives from suppliers for promoting certain products over others.
The Procurement Strategy Playbook for Modern Businesses
Learn the key pillars of a strong strategy, valuable procurement metrics to track, and initiatives you can start implementing today.
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Using procurement software for better healthcare procurement
Procurement is a huge part of a hospital's expenses but an even bigger part of successful patient care. While the traditional approach of using GPOs can help healthcare providers save money on in-contract goods, software offers advantages in procurement, especially for organizations that operate multiple locations. Often, the efficiency and volume advantages of using procurement software as a healthcare procurement solution far outweigh any benefit of familiarity for procuring hospital goods through traditional means.
Procurement software revolutionizes hospital operations by streamlining the purchasing of medical supplies and equipment. It also enables better spend analysis for budgeting, demand forecasting, and inventory level management. Automating procurement and payment processes saves hundreds of hours for finance and AP team members, ensures consistent, high-quality supplies are available on demand, and centralizes spend and trend data for better procurement decisions in the future.
Top benefits of using procurement software to automate healthcare purchasing
Moving from a GPO to a procurement platform brings control of the healthcare procurement process and supplies selection in-house. Instead of relying on contracted goods and being held to order minimums, healthcare organizations can choose the goods that best suit their needs and obtain them at competitive prices without relying on outside relationships or contract constraints.
Here are some of the top benefits that prompt healthcare organizations to move to a procurement platform like Order.co:
Streamlined purchasing processes
Procurement software streamlines purchasing processes by automating order placement, tracking deliveries, and managing supplier relationships in a centralized system. This reduces manual paperwork, speeds up transactions, and enhances accuracy, allowing hospital staff to focus on patient care rather than administrative tasks.
Reduced manual errors and paperwork
By automating the ordering and payment processes, procurement software significantly reduces human errors. It ensures that orders are accurately placed according to predetermined specifications and budgets. Automated matching of invoices and purchase orders further eliminates payment discrepancies, streamlining financial operations and safeguarding against overpayments or duplicate transactions.
Enhanced supplier management
Procurement software enhances supplier relationship management by providing a platform for straightforward communication and data exchange. It allows hospitals to track supplier performance, negotiate better deals, and ensure contract compliance. This leads to stronger partnerships, improved supply chain reliability, and enhanced patient care outcomes.
Improved compliance and regulatory adherence
A software solution can make ordering compliant goods easier by letting administrators create a curated catalog of approved goods. With purchasing guardrails in place, the system only allows ordering goods that meet requirements and helps the team find replacements if a primary supplier cannot meet their needs. Guided purchasing guarantees that all materials adhere to necessary health and safety standards.
Real-time spending insights
Procurement software empowers spend management and cost analysis by offering real-time visibility into procurement practices. It allows healthcare organizations to monitor spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, find cost-efficient alternatives during supply chain issues, and make data-driven decisions about resource allocation. This enhanced oversight helps manage budgets more effectively and reduces unnecessary expenditures, leading to significant cost efficiencies.
Cost savings and budget control
Procurement software streamlines the purchasing process and gives finance and operations control over spending. It lets administrators set budget limits and employ approval workflows, ensuring stakeholders can order necessary items without overspending. It automates cost comparisons and bulk purchase options, enabling informed decisions that align with budget constraints while efficiently fulfilling organizational needs.
Increased efficiency in inventory management
Procurement software boosts efficiency in managing hospital supplies by automating inventory levels and reordering processes. It ensures critical medical and office supplies are always available, reducing the risk of shortages that can affect patient care. It also minimizes the administrative time required to manage orders for potentially hundreds of vendors, saving labor for administrators and care providers alike.
Build stronger healthcare operations with Order.co
Using Order.co for healthcare procurement streamlines the complex process of acquiring medical supplies. It offers a seamless integration that enhances efficiency, reduces costs, and ensures the availability of essential items. By leveraging its advanced features, healthcare facilities can maintain optimal operational levels while focusing