The healthcare industry demands efficiency — Here's how this company helps hospitals transform to value-based care

As consumers pay more for their healthcare and the government pushes more regulations on healthcare facilities, efficiency will become exceedingly important. However, the healthcare industry is often plagued by inefficiency, with nearly 2.2 million patients admitted to the hospital waiting an average of six hours or more for a bed. This six-hour wait time is tied to a 1.7 percent increase in mortality rate and an additional 1.5 days in length of stay.

As president of TeleTracking, Michael Gallup directs the company's efforts to helping hospitals cut inefficiencies to effectively improve the patient experience, a crucial component of healthcare's shift to value-based care.

"There's enough money in the system to get the patients through and give them the care that they need if we cut out the inefficiencies. We have a doctor shortage, a nurse shortage; we have all these shortages out there. How do we fix that? Well, let's make them more productive," Mr. Gallup said during a Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing on Sept. 14, 2016. "If we can take labor and help them get more productive, we can get more patients through at the same price. If we can get more [patients] through at the same price, we can solve many of our problems."

Healthcare's emphasis on value drives the need for hospitals to cut costs, bolster staff productivity while simultaneously improving patient care. Historically, TeleTracking has focused on helping hospitals with patient flow, which encompasses everything from placement through discharge. Although the company traditionally works with hospitals, it has increasingly been partnering with outpatient clinics and physician offices.  

"We have been around for 25 years and we are seeing some of the greatest growth the company has seen through expanding our platform," Mr. Gallup says. "We are helping facilities in many aspects, from the operating room to catheter labs to radiology. We created a platform that allows them to move assets and labor it real time."

TeleTracking has centralized command centers, in which several hospitals can utilize these centers to ensure their patients are getting access to the right services and appropriate levels of care. Through the use of these services, hospitals can reduce patients' risk of readmission and ultimately improving their outcomes.  

"We are moving our focus significantly into, 'how do we make sure the patient has a better experience and staff is more productive and happy by not wasting time?'" Mr. Gallup said. "The technology makes sure assets are in the right place so clinicians don't waste time looking for them. Patients are getting care at the time they are supposed to be getting care. That is what efficiency means."

Often, efficiency fills healthcare professionals with a sense of dread and worry. While some may associate efficiency with worse patient outcomes, Mr. Gallup said efficiency entails quite the opposite as efficiency will drive the optimal patient experience.

"Through technology making practices more efficient, patients are getting more timely care and staff members are more satisfied because they are being caregivers, instead of doing all the other tasks we ask physicians to do," Mr. Gallup said. "Efficiency scares people, but it really is about providing better care."

Through their platform, all members of a patient's episode of care are invested in that care's quality. TeleTracking forms risk-based, gain-sharing agreements with its clients, as the company wants to ensure they are invested in the quality of care and patient outcomes, as well as the facility and provider.

"We want to work together to discover how to drive the better experience for the patient," Mr. Gallup said. "Patient flow has typically been pigeonholed to help patients get through the acute care space. We want to change that and focus on the logistics to getting patients the right level of care. In healthcare, it is easy to say we are going to be the Uber of healthcare, but you have to actually make that happen. What we do extremely well is make sure all the right logistics occur, and we plan on doing that into the future."

 

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