Looking for a Solution to Manage Clinical Variation and Cost Containment in Your Hospital?

As explained by Byers’ in his article on the future of hospital budgeting, there are many necessary changes to be made as we move into 2018. US hospitals and hospital systems must focus on timely issues such as social determinants to health, regulatory changes, and the ever present threat of artificial intelligence, while combating shrinking margins caused by rising medical costs and deductibles. Rather than attacking shrinking margins through measures such as reducing length of stay and cutting overtime hours and benefits, enacting clinical variation reduction has the potential to leave a lasting impact.

Gamble suggests that within a hospital there are typically three sources of unwanted clinical variation, underuse, misuse, and overuse.

1. Underuse: These are products that, due to a lack of knowledge or resources, are not used to their full potential. Rather than understanding the latent benefits of a product in use, a hospital is likely to jump to a new product offering the same results. This results in a congested supply chain as well as deadstock.
2. Misuse: This involves products or procedures that are used inappropriately. Risks and benefits are then often communicated inaccurately, and alternative treatments would better served the patient.
3. Overuse: The last source of clinical variation, is primarily seen in correlation with the acute care sector. Hospitals are overusing products and procedures meant for acute care, and neglecting to properly manage the treatment of chronically ill patients.

Attacking the three sources of unwanted clinical variation involves symbiosis within a hospital system. Essentially, hospital administrators must work closely with doctors to determine what products are most desired and most necessary, and both groups must work with medical supply vendors to obtain products at the best price. Much of the unwanted clinical variation occurring in hospitals can be prevented through comprehensive standardization, which can be seen as a roadblock to innovative and personalized customer care. The service provided by Greenlight Medical enables productive standardization by bringing all key players into a virtual room, and establishing a standardized procedure for introducing new products to a hospital.

GreenLight Medical software manages the three-way relationship between medical supply vendors, hospital administrators, and doctors by providing a service in which the vendors submit products to a hospital for review, and the hospitals and doctors approve or deny the products contingent upon a positive value proposition. The functionality of the portal allows administrators to perform financial analyses showing the monetary costs or benefits of implementing a new product or procedure. At the same time, the need for physician approval ensures that the product or procedure introduced is desired by the primary user; consequently, physicians maintain some autonomy with regards to the products they use. Using our software, physician engagement reaches 100% as they are the first receiver, a key stop, in the GreenLight process.

With a system in place tracking and controlling the entrance of new products into a hospital, products are more likely to be used appropriately, and clinical variation should decline ultimately resulting in cost containment.

To learn more and request a demo visit http://www.greenlightmedical.com/

Sources

Byers, J. (2017, December 11). Why hospitals will face greater cost containment efforts in 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2018, from https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/hospital-budgets-2018/512137/

Gamble, M. (n.d.). Driving Unwarranted Clinical Variation Out of a Hospital: Key Strategies. Retrieved January 11, 2018, from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/driving-unwarranted-clinical-variation-out-of-a-hospital-key-strategies.html