On April 7th, Mark will serve on the panel “The Best Thoughts on Controlling Labor Costs, What Projects to Invest In, and How to Identify the Source of Increasing Revenues” at Becker’s Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place on April 6-9, 2020 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Mark’s session, click here.
Question: What, from your perspective, is the biggest challenge about the future of work for hospitals, and what can they do about it? (i.e. automation, desire for more flexibility, clinician shortages, etc.)
Mark Anderson: To me, the biggest challenge is moving away from fee-for-service reimbursement to Quality/Value based reimbursement especially when we really do not know what it costs to keep individuals healthy.
Q: What, if anything, should hospitals be doing now given economists’ projections of a forthcoming economic downturn?
MA: Need to lower our costs by improving workflow and better aligning staff with workflow by hour and by day. No longer can we staff the same number of people each shift. Staffing must vary based on predictive workflow and hourly changes in workflow. To accomplish this we need better HR AI tools tied to volumes.
Q: How can hospitals reconcile the need to maintain inpatient volumes with the mission to keep people healthier and out of the hospital?
MA: Yes, but we need to understand that an inpatient bed is a cost, not revenue. We need more 24-48 hour outpatient ambulatory beds and maybe more LTC or extended stay beds with less daily costs.
Q: What do you see as the most exciting opportunity in healthcare right now?
MA: Movement form Fee-for-service to Value-Based reimbursement.
Price Transparency in Hospitals and Health Systems —
At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face. Apply for complimentary registration now.
