How to Increase Hospital Revenue Ethically

With a CAGR of 15 percent, the Indian healthcare industry is witnessing an encouraging growth over the last few years. And, this industry is likely to reach USD 250 million by 2020. With the rise of for-profit setups in India, the healthcare industry is now driven by a new system of shareholders and marketers.

Profit or Patients: What Leads to a Healthy Bottom Line?

There is no denying the fact that healthcare is a big business in India. But, none of these profitable figures can be achieved by ignoring the aspect of patient care.

With the improved medical infrastructure, rising disposal income and an improved awareness towards health, there has been an increased spending on healthcare. At the same time, patient expectations continue to rise and has become the major deciding factor in deciding the bottom line.

To improve hospital revenue ethically, the focus should be on meeting patient’s expectations. With these four proven methods, healthcare setups can increase revenue while delivering consistent patient satisfaction.

• Stop Revenue-Leakage in Your Hospital

Healthcare setups are constantly struggling with the issue of financial leakage that is impacting their revenue. Unorganized inventory and higher maintenance cost make a major dent in healthcare revenue. And then there are incidences of pilferage and non-performing resources.

Technology can come to your rescue and help with processes related to inventory and finance management. Modern-day healthcare setups are increasingly using tools like hospital management software to get inventory reports and track their non-moving items. Also, you can manage the utilization rate of heavy equipment to make your OT and ICU processes cost-effective.

• Invest in Health IT Systems to Support Clinical Decisions

As discussed above, the investment in IT health system is critical to improve your healthcare processes and profit. The use of healthcare IT systems in improving clinical decision support systems cannot be ignored. Hospital management software allows medical practitioners and admin staff to achieve better laboratory utilization, OPD control and prescription placement.

Technologies like electronic health records (EHR), have significantly reduces the error that usually happens while writing prescriptions manually. Reduced prescription errors through EHR leads to the lower operating cost and higher efficiency.

Further, medical practitioners can refer health records to view a patient’s medical history and provide quick diagnosis. This will not just save the time of medical professionals but patients also.

• Provide Quality Customer Service to Create a Positive Perception

Higher patient satisfaction often results in higher hospital revenue. According to a study conducted by Voluntary Hospitals of America, 70 percent of the patients were willing to pay more for the consultation from a quality physician.

If patients are satisfied with the overall experience in your healthcare setup, they are likely to pick your hospital the next time. On the contrary, an unhappy patient can speak negatively about your setup.

However, with a customer service team in place that spends time on listening to the concerns of patients will make a significant difference. Any conflict of patients in terms of missed appointments, faulty diagnosis or prescription errors needs to be redressed immediately. Commercialization of healthcare is inevitable but what you can ensure is that there isn’t any incidence of patient manipulation and exploitation at your centre.

• Understand Your Revenue Cycle

Understanding the hospital revenue cycle of your healthcare setup will help allocate your finances and human resources accordingly. Tools like hospital management software helps the management team keep a tab on process bottlenecks. Analytics reporting tools further provide charts and graphs to identify challenges and work on them.

This helps healthcare professionals further focus on things that demand their attention and reduce incidences of payment denials or delays. Hospital management software provides a centralized dashboard. 

Is your accounting staff spending more time on creating payments? Are you missing out on any revenue opportunity because of the lack of any service within your organization?

By implementing an automated revenue management system, you can finally get rid of faulty processes. It will streamline the entire payment process, resulting in higher productivity and profitability.

Wrapping Up

With all types of healthcare IT tools available for your set up, why still waste time on manual processes! Leverage the benefits of hospital management system and other automated tools to improve your patient care quotient.