Engaged, Communicative Leadership Is Critical in Furthering Operationally Efficient Hospitals within a Healthcare System

As healthcare systems face rising costs of care, diminishing reimbursements, increasing prevalence of complex chronic disease, social determinants affecting transition, and declining provider, staff, and patient delivery experience, they are also grappling with excess days, resulting in unplanned costs and inability to generate additional revenue. Strong, engaged, and communicative leadership is crucial to achieve success and viability in the coming years.

Emerging from the COVID pandemic, many health systems remained challenged with the need to optimize operations. Over a recent twelve-month period, BRG professionals conducted a comprehensive performance improvement throughput engagement within a nonprofit health system that has more than ten hospitals. The engagement would standardize the system’s care transition throughput principles and processes to benefit patients first, then the care team providers and ancillary and nursing staff, by promoting patient, family, staff, and provider awareness and engagement of processes. The engagement streamlined processes across the system to enhance operational efficiency to decrease excess days, decant the volume of emergency room boarders, and open capacity for both medical and surgical from surrounding system internal and external transfers and admissions.

The pandemic affected the delivery of efficient, effective, and creative care, challenges this health system was determined to meet head on. Rising costs of care, increasing prevalence of complex chronic disease, social determinants affecting transition, variations in care delivery, and declining provider, staff, and patient care experience and post-acute constrictions negatively impacted operational efficiency at many of the system’s hospitals.