The Healthcare Train Has Already Left the Station - Health Hub from ...

Yes. Politics is important. But as far as healthcare reform is concerned, the real action is taking place far from Washington. It?s going on at hospitals and medical centers nationwide, where doctors, nurses and administrators have been making enormous changes to make American healthcare leaner, more efficient and more effective for patients and communities.

Concerns about cost

Government healthcare reform is mainly concerned with how healthcare is paid for. I?m more concerned about the cost.

Where do the expenses pile up? How can we analyze and understand the processes that lead to higher costs and how can we bend the cost curve in a more favorable angle? Because if we can?t control costs, it doesn?t matter who or how we pay for healthcare. It?s going to break somebody?s budget.

At Cleveland Clinic, we?ve been engaged in an ongoing effort to trim costs from the ?behind the scenes? activities that patients rarely see but that add a lot of expense to their bills. A lot of this takes place in the supply chain ? the way a hospital procures and distributes the immense quantity of physical materials used in patient care.

Cutting $100 million

In 2009, we set an organizational goal to reduce our supply chain cost basis by $100 million in 24 months. We took our inspiration from Apple computers which maintains extraordinary control over supply chain and uses its size to achieve major discounts.

What did we do? We formed teams including physicians to review and refine our purchasing processes. We maintained a continual awareness of price so that caregivers who order new materials and devices could not evade the responsibility of considering lower cost alternatives. We adopted rigorous value-based purchasing protocols, utilized our market intelligence and business analytics capabilities, and examined and discussed every purchase from the standpoint of value, utility and outcomes.

Focus on patients

In this process, there was naturally a great deal of debate and discussion at every point along the way. One thing we discovered is that some of the most difficult cost issues could be resolved by asking ourselves this simple question: What is best for the patient?

Over the past two years, we?ve transformed the supply chain culture at Cleveland Clinic. We cut $100 million out of our cost basis without waiting for Washington or anyone else to make it happen.

So in one sense, it doesn?t matter who won the election. Healthcare reform has left the station. We?re already on our way to the new normal ? finding ways to do our jobs faster, better and more effectively.

Source: http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2012/11/the-healthcare-train-has-already-left-the-station/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-healthcare-train-has-already-left-the-station

titanic ii babe ruth new jersey nets nba playoff schedule rondo morris claiborne mothers day gifts