Working to improve the health status of an entire community is different than curing those who arrive at the hospital. The cost is also different.
We all know that the entire planet has changed. What we don't know exactly is what trends and solutions will lie ahead.
Perhaps the most firm thing is to think that the pandemic has accelerated the future. What was already hinting at has now become more defined. The pandemic was a catalyst for change.
Our fragility as people and as institutions made us think a lot about what we have to change. And it's not enough to say that we now have a home office and more digital communication.
The second firmest point is to think that problems of great magnitude could happen again in the coming years. Now we know that black swans exist.
The healthcare sector, like many others, needs to increase its profits. And we have to do this through an organization other than our business.
A new model is now accepted by all actors and this is a change.
Let's go through some ideas considering that your institution has already operated as a health insurer, that is, as a health plan. If your institution is not at this stage, then study a little, as you should work in this modality. This ensures a more continuous ingress. Furthermore, it is a win-win strategy for everyone, as we will see below. Paying for services provided has a downside as no one will go against your business. So the worse the general health system, the better for those who provide services.
We have to get out of this model, as it does not allow us to work to keep the population in good health and save resources that are scarce.
On the other hand, if you don't have continuous contact with your client or patient, then the whole task becomes more difficult.
Let's look at some ideas.
Pre-hospitalization stage
Here, the prevention task can reduce your costs by up to 30%. With the increase in life expectancy, many chronic diseases appear in the population. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, in addition to smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, etc., constitute a cost that can be reduced with prevention, education and resources dedicated to this. Greater spending on prevention represents greater savings later.
We must add here that digital means allow patients to be followed in their homes with frequent contact and instructions. This implies organizing and even reducing admission to the hospital.
Hospitalization stage
A simple application would allow you to organize schedules and patient arrivals at the hospital. If we add that it can include data from the patient's medical record, we have greater accuracy of information and a great reduction in the cost of collecting their history. We have to consider that anticipating the patient's assessment can provide better guidance for the patient upon entry into the health institution, according to their urgency and illness, be it a health center, PA or hospital, and would allow for more efficient management of the flow. and would avoid having to use a more sophisticated means than necessary to care for the patient.
Post-hospitalization stage
Many readmissions occur here due to inadequate management at patient discharge. Many patients come back and we start spending again. In addition to improving instructions at the time of discharge, contact can be made with the patient in the following days and with their family members, to check the continuity of treatment. Today, there are also technologies to ensure the administration of the correct medication at the correct time for the patient and its proof.
All of this that is briefly described has a central concept: considering the patient within a community with which you are in contact, whenever necessary.
Stopping working with patients inside the hospital, and caring for them wherever they are at any time, is a paradigm shift. Digital media are now in everyone's hands and are accepted by everyone.
Hospitalization stage
Now we know that almost everyone has a smartphone and we can use this feature. It would be very easy to store the patient's medical record on your mobile device or in the cloud, protected by technology block-chain. In addition to improving the quality of medical consultations, it would also save time and money. We could organize the trip to the hospital at a set time for the appointment, reducing the confusion of many people arriving at 8 am. We could send messages to the family and ask for some help. They could control some procedures and would help us. The possibilities for doing things with a handheld that everyone now accepts and owns are endless.
No business can prosper with 30% waste and this is the amount recognized by managers, which is lost in hospitals.
The real profit is there and not just in continuing to increase services. The quality of procedures and good management of your stocks are the key elements to action.
Now is the time. The pandemic made us change our way of thinking. We cannot miss this opportunity.
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