A new healthcare frontier: Maintaining momentum and innovation

As preview to the 2021 Fall Member Retreat, from Healthcare Business Insights, part of Clarivate, we share how hospitals are adapting to a new, better tomorrow.

While some businesses and communities may still aspire to “go back to normal” when COVID-19 transitions from pandemic to endemic, healthcare organizations face a landscape that has been forever altered. While the United States strives to live with virus strains and maintain baseline infection rates, the ways that providers intake, treat and communicate with patients have been irrevocably forwarded. Maintaining old ways of doing things is no longer an option. Patients, competition, outcomes and safety all demand continued advancement.

So how are U.S. healthcare providers and health systems advancing their processes? In this article, five forward-thinking health systems showcase the best practices that have helped them to thrive during uncertainty, and that they will continue post-pandemic. Join us at the Clarivate 2021 Fall Member Retreat to hear more of their stories.

 

Pre-service becomes an informative ‘one stop shop’

Michigan Medicine ensures that one leader oversees pre-service revenue cycle (including financial clearance, prior authorization, financial counseling and registration) as well as patient receivables and customer service. A patient financial advocate handles any complex patient cases or those with errors to prevent patient impact and reach out to the patient personally. A streamlined pre-service process ensures patients are educated as to their coverage and estimated out-of-pocket costs and counseled on their financial assistance or payment options prior to their date of service.

Michigan Medicine’s next goal is to institute increasingly proactive patient outreach, including:

  • patients with low coverage plans who may not be aware of all options, and
  • patients with recurring appointments who are accumulating balances.

 

Registration becomes concierge

Essentia Health initially implemented telephonic registration to ensure check-in processes remained safe for its patients and staff. With so much of the organization’s revenue services staff now remote, leaders began looking into a virtual method of registration that would enhance patient interaction but allow registrars to cover all points of entry more efficiently. Upon check-in, a patient now taps a monitor or says “registration” to be connected via video to the next available registrar.

Its next goal will be to use the same technology to schedule follow-up appointments, financial clearance and counseling interactions.

 

Price transparency becomes patient financial literacy

Nemours Children’s Health System is going beyond compliance with its 2021 price transparency rule via three workgroups dedicated to:

  • developing and maintaining an accurate standard charge list,
  • making services shoppable through a self-directed online pricing estimator, and
  • marketing and communications for internal and external stakeholders.

Already, the organization has developed informational brochures, webpages and online explainer videos to help explain pricing information to patients, but its next goal—further advancing patient understanding around pricing and cost comparisons—is still in the planning phases.

 

Patient experience becomes a comparable measure

Yale New Haven Health System instituted a revenue cycle-based survey to complement its Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Provides and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Both include the question, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our organization to family and friends?” The results provide a Net Promoter Score—a measure already used in other industries but only recently gaining traction in healthcare. A workgroup collates data from surveys (including patient comments) and from other feedback channels to develop a quarterly managerial dashboard and an executive report.

To advance, the organization is looking into real-time ‘pulse’ surveys that could be sent immediately after each patient interaction.

 

Workflows become gamified

Piedmont Healthcare turned on a gamification feature within its workforce management system to engage staff, ensure they were working to their full capacity and provide the highest level of customer service. Piloted in inbound scheduling, staff can now add a widget to their daily performance dashboards that will show how they rank amongst their team and earn badges based on their schedule adherence (active time versus scheduled work time) and call quality score. The six-month pilot increased schedule adherence by 6% and call quality scores by 4%.

Next, the organization will expand gamification to other teams and move call quality evaluation from a manual process to an automated one that utilizes artificial intelligence.

Learn from these forward-thinking health systems and 15 others during the 2021 Fall Member Retreat, hosted by Healthcare Business Insights, part of Clarivate. We will once again be in person at the Westin Denver Downtown from September 22-24, helping attendees to compare current practices and strategic plans as well as develop action steps toward their next goals.

Register today.