It is often wrongly attributed that volume reductions will automatically lead to cost savings. This does not always work in the healthcare industry out due to several challenges in cost reduction. One reason for that is that the impact of the care to be taken is unknown before it actually gets executed. Also, the impact per department and individual initiative is rather low. An unintended consequence of cost reduction is inefficiencies creeping into the operational system. In some sectors, cost reductions are easier but in others such as healthcare it backfires. Health care relies a lot of talent management and social welfare, which cannot be replicated by machines. Staff optimization can be proactively performed in three ways, starting with lowering the number of scheduled hours. Another is to optimize the staffing during peak consultation hours. Finally, some structural changes ought to be introduced where departmental staff can be shared during non-peak hours or the specialist to assistant ratio be reworked.

Source:https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/nl/qualityasremedy/turn-volume-reduction-into-cost-saving?sf197180787=1

Uploaded Date:15 September 2018