Improving Patient Flow Is Essential for Increasing Revenue

Dr. Richard Wacksman has been involved in both health care administration and patient care during his more than 25 years in the medical field. As a health care executive, Dr. Richard Wacksman notably increased hospital revenue by improving patient throughput in surgical and emergency care settings.

One of the main issues that health care administrators need to address is ED (emergency department) crowding. Having a packed waiting room often compromises the quality of care, as well as the level of patient trust. However, the problem can be mitigated by improving patient throughput in the clinical network.

Health care administrators can lessen crowding and wait time by involving ED members in the throughput process, as well as by measuring patient flow to address any variances.

Because patient flow is vital to patient satisfaction and profitability, the utilization of bed space must be assessed, as well as patient transport. For example, bed-tracking software may be used to identify inefficiencies in addition to transporting technologies. Both of the IT solutions enable administrators to identify disruptions that can impair the throughput process.

Hospital administrators also need to consider the incidence of infection in evaluating incongruities. Doing so is important in lessening the number of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), all which can lead to costly complications in a heath care setting. When patient transportation, bed space, and HAI monitoring are synchronized, patient flow and satisfaction, along with incoming revenues, increase overall.