Chad S. Aduddell, CEO of Little Rock, Ark.-based CHI St. Vincent, said hospitals can curb costs and ensure patients understand prices up front by improving communication between patients and hospital staff, according to Arkansas Business.
"Our goal around pricing is to develop a clear rationale for how we set the total cost of care and share the information with patients to allow them to make educated decisions on their healthcare choices," Mr. Aduddell, who additionally oversees all of Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives' organizations and operations in the state of Arkansas, told Arkansas Business. "The patient experience is critical to our core value of striving toward excellence, and clear pricing is a significant piece to a consumer’s overall satisfaction."
In addition to improving financial communication with patients, Mr. Aduddell said CHI St. Vincent's has employed a systematic approach to identify new opportunities to increase efficiency and reduce waste while improving patient outcomes as part of the hospital's efforts to cut costs, according to the report.
For example, the hospital is now accountable for quality and patient outcomes for an extended period of time following primary joint replacement surgery. Care managers reach out to the patients before their surgeries and remain in contact with them for four months after discharge from the hospital to ensure they receive the right follow-up care, Mr. Aduddell explained. The care managers also provide coordinated communication between patients' various providers — including surgeons and primary care physicians — throughout the process.
"The payoff for the patients has been incredible. We have been able to shorten the amount of time the patient spends in the hospital after surgery, reduce the frequency of subsequent readmissions after they go home and improve overall outcomes," Mr. Aduddel told Arkansas Business. "We have seen a 15.7 percent decrease in the total cost of care for these patients compared with a couple of years ago. And when looking at benchmarks across the country, our costs are significantly lower than those of other facilities."