The study, conducted with the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems, found that unnecessarily long hospital stays accounted for 54 percent of this loss as time and resources are used while patients wait for discharge. The $12 billion represents 2 percent of total nationwide hospital revenue and is around one half of the 3.6 percent profit margin of most hospitals.
According to the study, researchers suggest that investing in information technology systems that can streamline communication among all employees at a hospital would help to reduce these losses. This is the first study to quantify the amount of money lost due to communication failure in hospitals.
Read about UMD’s hospital communication study.
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