There is Opportunity in Disruption
It may be an understatement to say that the healthcare delivery system has changed dramatically since the pandemic. Do any of the following apply to your organization?
- Struggling to stay open due to financial constraints.
- Management addressing significant unplanned issues on a daily basis.
- Lack of quality resources or the increased cost of resources to serve the current demand for services.
- Volumes are not at the same level as they were pre-pandemic and have become unpredictable.
Don’t be paralyzed by this disruption…Embrace It and adjust your thinking for the future. Consider the following to help your organization benefit from this disruption:
- It is important to have an honest assessment of your organization. Take a step away from daily activities and perform an objective assessment of how current operating and clinical procedures could be modified to improve financial and care quality results. You will need to think creatively and not take current procedures as gospel or for granted.
- Update your understanding of the demand for healthcare services in the community you serve and modify your organization’s approach to healthcare delivery to address demand. Since the pandemic, patients (consumers) have been changing their behavior as it relates to receiving healthcare. Examples of these changes include: delaying elective procedures (maybe due to the cost of healthcare or a new attitude on receiving healthcare), adopting telemedicine as a new pathway to access care, using personal diagnostic and treatment technologies, and utilizing new pharmaceuticals. Questions that should be included in your assessment include:
- What will be the demand for specific healthcare services? Will that demand for each specific service be able to fund itself financially or will it have to rely on other sources of reimbursement?
- What will be the definition of inpatient acute care services in the future (how will that definition address the impact of acuity and average length of stay)?
- Will technology and clinical enhancements provide more opportunity for outpatient services or hospital at home versus traditional inpatient acute care?
- Update your understanding of how to address resource shortages and its impact on operations. This may involve productivity, staffing and efficiency analyses as well as incorporating new technologies.
- Evaluate how to optimize artificial intelligence to assist in patient engagement, and clinical decision support to help improve efficiency throughout an organization.
- Develop a strategic pathway by creating multiple financial forecasts with various assumptions that take into consideration your findings from above. Assumptions may include:
- Evaluation of service lines
- Shift of service locations (i.e. ambulatory surgery centers and virtual care)
- Cost-savings measures
- New revenue opportunities
- Utilization and related reimbursement for services
- Capital footprint – does your current physical structure address the demand for services
- Change in payor mix (a shift towards Medicare will continue)
- Impact on resources (i.e. productivity /technology /artificial intelligence /efficiencies)
- Other….
Microscope can help your organization turn disruption into opportunity. We have invested in personnel and resources that have demonstrated the ability to:
- Improve cash flow and recommend efficiencies to help provide organizations with the necessary resources for change.
- Assist in strategic financial modeling, debt capacity studies, and feasibility studies.
- Provide outsourced resources for financial services.
- Provide MDS Coordinators specifically for long-term care providers.
- Introduce your organization to other vetted solution providers, automated billing platforms, and decision support/analysis software.
