Containing clinical costs in a safe manner in hospitals is crucial in the new value-based era of care. Reducing patient lengths of stay has been one of the main targets for clinical cost containment in hospitals. One-way hospitals can contain costs is by implementing EHR alerting systems that notify clinicians when they’ve ordered tests or antibiotics with less expensive alternatives. Other clinical cost-containing areas hospitals can focus on include reducing unnecessary direct and indirect costs of clinical services, including radiological and laboratory testing, blood transfusions, transitioning patients to less expensive facilities, antibiotic stewardship and palliative care.
Some of the biggest challenges facing providers interested in implementing cost-containment strategies include:
- Capital investment requirements
- A growing need for data analytics and EHRs
- Fostering culture changes and physician buy-in at hospitals
- Fear that reducing costly tests and lengths of stay will lead to medical malpractice litigation
- Finding competent physician champions, administrative leaders or a clinical optimization officer to spearhead cost containment efforts
Medlinks Cost Containment has designed a software program called the Healthcare Audit Tracker. This new tool will help you track DRG, commercial and government compliance audits including attaching the entire medical record. It will dramatically reduce audit workflow time. Our tool will help save your hospital millions of dollars.
