|
|
Article: Building the business case for clinical quality: hospital performance improvement projects that focus on reducing costs risk undermining clinical quality, while failing to achieve any real financial benefit. A better approach is to focus on improving cost efficiencies.(FEATURE STORY)
- Article from:
- Healthcare Financial Management
- Article date:
- December 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Healthcare Financial Management Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Are your hospital's performance improvement efforts reaching the organization's bottom line? That's a question that is gaining importance for many hospital CFOs. Consider the following scenario:
Your hospital's fully loaded costs for an ICU bed-day average $2,500. The critical care performance improvement team has implemented the "Surviving Sepsis" guidelines promoted by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and, through improved outcomes, shortened overall length of stay for sepsis and severe sepsis patients by 100 days per year. Using the data from the cost accounting system, the team estimates it has saved the hospital $250,000 a year and a celebration ensues. ...