Tips to Improve Your Hospital Utilization Process for Lucrative Cost Savings

This article was written by Lisa Miller.
Finding opportunities to reduce your hospital utilization costs brings major cost savings, but chances are your GPO or private consultant would rather not attempt it because it’s time-consuming and requires expertise in certain specialized areas. Despite the potential cost savings it adds to your hospital’s financial margins, not everyone is willing to dig that deep.
To find the real savings that often get overlooked, you’ll need a deep understanding of skilled areas, like clinical operations, to accurately interpret the data that you will also need to collect from different sources.
It’s not easy but if you’ve got the resources on site, here are some ways to improve your hospital utilization now.
Review Your Medical Gas Cylinder Utilization
Keeping track of your medical gas cylinders seems arbitrary to some GPOs and private consultants, but we know that tracking usage can significantly improve your bottom line. A hospital with numerous locations could easily lose track of usage and spend extra money ordering new supplies. Managing your cylinders gathers those lost dollars and ensures supplies are always available when they’re needed the most.
Audit Your Lost Linens
Lost linens are probably the most common hospital losses of all, especially for a large hospital losing linens on a regular basis. Statistics show that laundry costs eat 2% to 3% of your hospital budgets. With annual budget deadlines coming up, you’ll want to find cost-saving opportunities in this area to close this gap. Linen loss is a result of several factors, but unless there is a utilization audit procedure put in place, losses will continue to plague a hospital’s financial margins.
Assess Your IT Licensing
IT licensing is difficult to track since technology is constantly changing and IT contracts grow more complex every year. Vendors are always introducing new licensing models, maintenance options and audit clauses every day. Some of these come bundled with technology you may not even be using.
To watch your IT spend, you’ll need to review your contracts and technology usage regularly. Click To Tweet
You’ll also need to benchmark industry pricing options to make sure you’re paying the right price.
Match Bed Size Contracts with Bed Size Numbers
It goes without saying that the number of beds your hospital provides should match the number of beds you actually use. The best way to determine an accurate number is through a detailed analysis. You’ll want to make sure those numbers match up with the terms in your contract. You’ll also want to take other factors into consideration like minimum bed requirements and future growth expectations.
We’ll continue this series with further ideas and strategies. Stay tuned!