Operating efficiency is more than just a trendy term in the healthcare industry; it is the foundation of hospitals and the overall quality of patient care, and underfunding it can have serious consequences for both patient care and business.
Medical equipment underutilization can cost as much as $12,000 annually per bed. Systems that are not optimized lead to financial losses, overstretched resources, low staff morale, and most critically, compromised patient safety and health.
This may be avoided by your business by identifying and eliminating present inefficiencies, which will help you make the most use of your resources, comprehend current obstacles, enhance operations, and deliver the best potential patient outcomes.
Healthcare Operational Efficiency: Real-World Examples
Healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) can satisfy operational and business targets, enhance patient conditions, and improve overall patient care by simplifying technology and processes.
Think about monitoring devices, which help doctors keep tabs on patients’ health and react quickly to any changes. With so much vital data to track and examine, managing these instruments may be laborious and time-consuming. By automating data processing and integration, decreasing manual oversight, and minimizing technological difficulties, operational efficiency upgrades simplify the management of monitoring machines.
Another crucial area for operational improvements is patient communication. Enhancing relationships through the use of tools like patient portals, automated appointment reminders, and real-time response systems frees up medical staff to concentrate on delivering high-quality treatment.
Lastly, operational effectiveness is critical to preserving regulatory compliance, both in terms of remaining compliant and providing local regulatory bodies and auditors with evidence of compliance. Maintaining compliance with laws like HHS 405 requires tracking, tracing, and recording the status of clinical assets, medical devices, and facilities (d).
Obstacles to Healthcare Operational Efficiency
1. Antiquated Technology Framework
Numerous technological instruments are essential to the functioning of healthcare institutions. Managing a variety of systems and devices takes a substantial amount of time and money, from clinical gadgets to help with patient care to software to handle patient information.
More than 90% of executives in the healthcare industry believe that increasing operational efficiency requires technology consolidation. Still, eighty percent are in the planning or early stages of consolidation.
A multitude of medical equipment that are not commonly utilized in conjunction with an abundance of software tools or assets that are always in need of repair or replacement can result in severe time and energy losses. When you combine this with the fact that a large number of devices are legacy equipment, you can see how difficult consolidation will be.
2. Dangers to Cybersecurity
Operational effectiveness can be severely hampered by cyberattacks such as ransomware, malware, and even clone phishing campaigns. Large amounts of sensitive data are managed by healthcare institutions, and if they are hacked, patient trust and operational integrity may be at risk.
Healthcare companies need to make investments in medical device risk management and advanced cyber-physical systems (CPS) protection platforms in order to secure network-connected devices because cyberattacks are getting more frequent and complex.
3. Adherence to regulations
Healthcare firms also have to deal with the constantly evolving set of rules designed to protect patient safety. If your firm lacks a system to adhere to cybersecurity legislation, device management procedures, and in-patient care standards, you run the danger of not meeting regulatory requirements and seriously jeopardizing operational efficiency.
4. Ineffective workflow procedures
Due to the intricacy of healthcare operations, consistent processes are frequently lacking, which results in delays and redundancies that may jeopardize patient outcomes. Furthermore, ineffective workflows might result in higher healthcare expenses and a heavier strain for medical staff.
5. Difficulties with resource management
The inefficient use and misallocation of vital resources can seriously impair operational effectiveness. Inadequate management of medical equipment, for example, can lead to delays because of equipment shortages or high maintenance expenses, which further ruins workflows and puts more burden on operations. Due to personnel limitations, hospitals and other healthcare companies also struggle with a shortage of cybersecurity talent inside their IT resources, which makes it difficult to manage attack surfaces.
Seven Crucial Pointers to Boost Operational Effectiveness
1. Adaptively Control Device Usage and Inventory
To increase asset visibility and comprehend how your assets connect within the network, a thorough inventory is essential. Select a system, like CMMS/CMDB, that interfaces with your asset management solutions for increased visibility.
You can identify which assets are getting close to end-of-life by keeping an eye on device utilization within your asset inventory. This could reveal more serious cybersecurity threats. You may also be able to learn about the average number of exams, utilization rate, and distribution of devices by hours. Specifically, biomed teams may monitor and access use reports according to the kind of medical equipment, saving time and enhancing fundamental productivity.
2. Monitor and Enhance Device Locations
It’s critical to always know exactly where your gadgets are located. Your team will be able to monitor mobile equipment and misplaced devices more effectively if they can easily track the whereabouts of gadgets across several locations. Real-time locating systems (RTLS) and other expensive location tracking solutions may not even be necessary when location services are integrated with current technologies.
3. Improve the Purchasing and Operation of Devices
You may make more educated purchasing decisions by measuring and evaluating the risk postures of the various device kinds in your fleet. To ensure that you have the necessary number and variety of devices for your particular healthcare environment, use utilization statistics and industry benchmarks to right-size your fleet.
You can renegotiate lease and maintenance agreements for better terms and balance the deployment of devices among departments or locations with the use of device procurement data. You may increase device dependability and cost effectiveness by matching procurement plans to real usage patterns and industry standards.
4. Evaluate and Manage Device Lifecycles and Usage
Ensuring patient safety requires a thorough understanding of asset management’s equipment life cycles and usage. Ensuring that a device functions properly when needed is crucial to maintaining a caring atmosphere. Access device lifecycles, find out whether operating systems are out-of-date or unsupported, and locate or fix high-risk devices that are still capable of carrying out their therapeutic role.
5. Make Capital Planning More Effective
When thinking about operational efficiency, finances might not be the first thing that come to mind, but you can improve ROI and capital planning for your company by knowing how devices are used.
Making educated judgments regarding required device replacements and upgrades can be aided by analyzing comprehensive reports on device consumption and lifetime status. Additionally, you may ensure that sufficient funds are set aside for important investments by informing your finance staff of necessary expenses as soon as they arise. Your healthcare company may maximize resource allocation and create the greatest possible impact on operational efficiency with the help of effective capital planning.
6. Enhance the Management of Patient Flow
Managing the flow of patients, equipment, and supplies through a medical facility from the time they enter until they leave is known as patient flow management. To balance this flow, the appropriate instruments are essential.
7. Boost ROI and Device Operations
In order to increase return on investment and keep operational efficiency in the healthcare industry at the proper level, time-saving and task-splitting initiatives are always justified. CMMS reconciliation and auditing can automate time-consuming tasks, freeing up biomed teams to concentrate on higher-value goals. This can be accomplished by using the platform’s expressly automated operational efficiency recommendations to swiftly and effectively calculate ROI.
Use Claroty xDome to Put Operational Efficiency Strategies into Practice
When implemented properly, increased operational efficiency can result in better patient outcomes, better asset and device maintenance, more effective financial planning, and an all-around boost in morale within your organization.
Having a complete platform, such as Claroty xDome, to monitor and control your devices is the first step towards enabling most of these crucial initiatives. Claroty xDome provides essential information regarding device usage and lifecycles, as well as strong cybersecurity protection for medical devices and building automation systems (BAS). With this information, you can begin making more informed operational decisions.
Get started increasing the operational effectiveness of your healthcare business by scheduling a demo with a staff member to discover more about the features of Claroty xDome.
