It is common for all hospitals to struggle with profitability at one point or another. With the healthcare industry's evolution, hospitals seek new and innovative ways to lower operational costs, boost revenue collection, and raise net profitability. If your healthcare business is also going through tough economic times, you have landed on the right page. Here, we have listed the top seven practices that will help you increase your hospital's profitability significantly. Read ahead to discover the secret -
  • Introduce Promising New Services - The hospital must go hand in hand with technology to introduce new services. This will create a reputation for the hospital and make it a reliable and trustworthy organization for patients. For instance, the hospital must avoid unnecessarily long waits for the patients to collect their laboratory results. Effective staff management to ensure every patient feels supervised should be a priority. When staffing your medical agency, hiring employees dedicated to providing excellent patient care and with the necessary skills and experience is essential. Every single employee, from the guy working in the in-office pharmacy to the head of the department, must be committed to patient satisfaction and work as a team to give the patient a world-class treatment experience. 
  • Revise The IT Strategy - The hospitals can also boost their profit by utilizing effective technologies. Clinical decision support systems help the hospital achieve favorable financial outcomes and let the providers oversee laboratory utilization. These systems are also found helpful by the providers to significantly decrease the number of unnecessary tests without compromising on patient care quality. These systems can also help reduce the number of errors committed during the prescription placement phase of healthcare. 
  • Using these systems, funds spent on reordering the correct prescriptions are saved. Apart from that, many applications like Epic App Orchard have been developed to better healthcare. This is an innovative platform where developers can learn about Epic's APIs. Moreover, they can list their applications for Epic community members to explore and access. The app has also enabled ZocDoc for patient self-scheduling, thus considerably reducing the expenditure of the hospitals' time and energy. 
  • Reduce Readmissions - High readmission rates are expensive for the hospital. The hospital must reduce the number of readmissions to as much as possible. The hospital administration must obtain as much patient data as possible and analyze it carefully. Apart from that, the hospital can also reduce readmissions by providing adequate follow-up care. This can be achieved through data-driven changes across the entire continuum of care. 
  • Say No To Unnecessary Testing - Reducing the number of unnecessary tests administered in hospitals can help increase a hospital's profitability by a significant measure. A study conducted by choosingwisely.org suggests that unnecessary tests and procedures pose a severe problem to the healthcare system. The investigation revealed that the providers can reduce a lot of unnecessary testing by spending more time understanding the patient's case and their specific health needs. Improved communication between the patient and the physician is indispensable. The hospital must also implement an effective laboratory expert system to reduce unnecessary testing. 
  • Reduce Staffing Costs - Labour undoubtedly is one of the most significant expenses of the hospital. The hospital administration needs to ensure that human resources are well-spent. Adopting measures such as using flexible staffing, recruiting part-time or hourly employees, and adjusting the staff based on patient census data can help the hospital function profitably. The hospital management should also monitor the team's efficiency by continuously reviewing benchmarking data, such as the number of hours an employee works. 
  • Manage The Vendors Well - The hospitals can reduce the supply cost by a considerable margin if they manage the vendors well. Reducing the supply costs by working with vendors to improve contracts is a way out. The management should also encourage physicians to make profitable supply decisions. The administration should also approach the vendors for any special discounts. Also, the hospitals must require the vendors to submit purchase orders for equipment or implants not included in a well-documented agreement with the facility. 
  • Outsourcing The Management Of Services - If the hospital is going through tough economic times, the administration may consider outsourcing or partnering with other organizations for certain services. These prominently include services like food, laundry, and clinical services. Outsourcing the management of a few functions is undoubtedly profitable if the hospital can gain greater efficiency by finding a larger-scale operation. However, the catch is that the provider must be more efficient than the hospital. 
Lastly, hospitals must reduce costs and increase reimbursement to improve profit, like any other organization. To improve revenue and minimize expenses simultaneously is the key. Following the above-listed practices can prove beneficial for any multispeciality hospital.