The Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals (TORCH) has published the first of a two-part article by HHS Chief Strategy Officer Paul Torres, exploring how hospitals can consolidate management of interrelated support services in order to improve performance and cut operating costs.
From the article, Embracing the Simple Solutions: How Consolidating Support Services Management Can Improve Performance and Minimize Operating Costs (Part 1):
On average, hospitals received only 88 cents per dollar spent on patient care for Medicare patients in 2013, according to the American Hospital Association. As a result, combined, Medicare and Medicaid underpayments totaled $51 billion in the same year, according to the American Hospital Association’s Underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid Fact Sheet, 2015 Update. Because Medicare and Medicaid account for 58% of all care provided by U.S. hospitals, this shortfall has the potential to devastate smaller hospitals with limited revenue streams. In order to remain successful in the current healthcare environment, hospitals must reduce waste, minimize redundancies, and tighten their belts, all while improving patient experience and quality outcomes — this, of course, is no simple task.
“Rural and community hospitals, in particular, face challenges when it comes to maximizing resources,” says Paul Torres, Chief Strategy Officer at HHS, a Texas-based healthcare support service provider. “The right innovations and solutions are critical to accomplishing this mission in rural healthcare, without compromising culture or quality of service.”
The article was published in the December 2015 edition of the TORCH Marketplace newsletter, with part two scheduled to run in the February 2016 edition. Read the full article here.