Improving your profit margins: It isn’t just a pipe dream

Description

Abstract: Persistent reductions in Medicare payments, state Medicaid cuts since the economic downturn and continued demands for uncompensated care have pushed some hospitals to the brink of insolvency. But across-the-board efforts to trim department budgets further and deeper will go only so far. The long-term answer is to pinpoint profit-building strategies throughout the organization. This article looks at reducing readmissions, implementing a population health management program, addressing shortcomings in the OR and ER, adding service lines, controlling supply costs, and outsourcing services.