Cost is the major issue behind the top healthcare challenges for next year, as forecasted by Tefen USA.
Tefen USA is a subsidiary of Tefen, a global management, consulting firm. The company provides organizations with ways to improve performance in costs, quality and service delivery.
Healthcare consultants at Tefen have highlighted key issues for hospital administrators for 2008 and included the following recommendations.
REFORMING HEALTHCARE COSTS
•It is estimated that 50 million Americans will be without health insurance by the end of 2008 and with healthcare costs estimated to grow to $2.9 trillion issues of universal coverage, tort reform, drug prices and competition will have to be considered in order to reduce these numbers.
•Studies have shown that over 90 percent of physicians engage in defensive medicine and 59 percent order unnecessary procedures and tests for fear of litigation. Studies have also shown that a 5-9 percent reduction in healthcare spending in this area has no quality impact. This calls for standardizing best practice methods and exploring incentive-based compensation to combat unnecessary spending.
•Hospitals and insurance companies will be increasingly judged on hospital data and pricing performance. This will call for greater transparency in healthcare pricing in order to ensure a fair market.
INVESTING IN IT
•Due to the nursing and healthcare professional shortage, providers will seek innovative ways to schedule their existing personal in order to maintain the right staff at the right level and at the right time. By improving support systems nurses will be free to spend more time with their patients.
•Maximizing equipment and minimizing waste will become a universal mantra for hospital administrators. By streamlining delivery, ordering and utilization systems, waste and cost will be reduced.
•By the end of 2008 the cesarean birth rate will be approaching 35 percent. This means that OB practices will have to invest in systems to improve operational performances to keep up with the increasing demand.
•CMS P4P rules will begin impacting health systems. Organizations will need quality management systems to reduce costs of care.
•Finding the weak link in supply chains can bring an immediate, positive change in distribution. Hospitals will have to improve the performance of their distribution systems.
NEW FACILITES AND DEPARTMENTS
•The ER is becoming increasingly overcrowded. Specialized treatment centers for non-urgent patients will have to be built to manage the influx.
•The healthcare system is facing the explosion of an aging baby boomer population. Facilities will have to be designed to meet their needs as well as budgeting for oncology, cardiology and orthopedic departments.