In this episode, Randi Deckard, BESLER’s Senior Vice President of Client Engagement, provides us with a glimpse into BESLER’s upcoming free Hospital Margin Improvement Roundtable that she’s moderating live on Wednesday, February 26, at 1 PM ET.
Podcast (hfppodcast): Play in new window | Download
Learn how to listen to The Hospital Finance Podcast® on your mobile device.Highlights of this episode include:
- Who will be the experts joining
- Target audience for this roundtable
- Why hospital margin improvement is relevant
- How clinical variation reduction (CVR), is pivotal in enhancing hospital margins
- Three ways to think about CVR
- Foundations of CVR
Kelly Wisness: Hi, this is Kelly Wisness. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast. We’re pleased to welcome back Randi Deckard, BESLER’s Senior Vice President of Client Engagement. In this episode, Randi will provide us with a glimpse into BESLER’s upcoming free Hospital Margin Improvement Roundtable that she’s moderating live on Wednesday, February 26th at 1 PM Eastern Time. Welcome back and thank you for joining us, Randi.
Randi Deckard: I’m so delighted to be on the show again.
Kelly: Yes, we’re happy to have you back. Well, let’s go ahead and jump in. So, who will be the experts joining you on this upcoming The Hospital Margin Improvement Roundtable?
Randi: The roundtable will feature industry leading experts in healthcare, finance, operations, and clinical optimization. And the panelists: Laurie Jaccard is the founder, president, and CEO of Clinical Intelligence. She actually has clinical experience. So, she’s an RN and has over 25 years of experience in both clinical operations and care management consulting. And then Steve Berger is a senior advisor for Clinical Intelligence, and he has over 50 years of healthcare financial management and leadership experience. So, between myself, Laurie, and Steve, everyone’s getting 100 years of experience with this roundtable, which is kind of impressive. [laughter]
Kelly: That’s not kind of impressive. That is impressive. That’s going to be a great roundtable, so.
Randi: 100%.
Kelly: Yeah. So, who’s the target audience for this roundtable?
Randi: Yeah. So, this roundtable is really designed for healthcare leaders and decision makers who are responsible for both financial and operational performance, whether it’s a single hospital or a system. So, a CFO or a CMO – and when I say CMO, I’m saying Chief Medical Officer, not Chief Marketing Officer – CNO, CIO, or COO. So, it’s really anyone who is responsible for the financial sustainability, operational efficiency, or clinical standardization in their organization that could really benefit from this because we’re going to share actionable insights to drive margin improvement.
Kelly: Sounds great. So why is this topic, hospital margin improvement, relevant?
Randi: Well, hospital margins are under increasing pressure for a number of reasons. Rising labor costs, workforce shortages, hello burnout, declining reimbursement rates and payer challenges, operational inefficiencies, regulatory pressures tied to the value-based care model. All of these impact a hospital’s profit margin. And 39% of U.S. hospitals are operating with negative margins. So, finding sustainable cost-saving strategies while still maintaining high-quality patient care is more critical than ever. And this discussion will explore how data-driven strategies, operational efficiencies, and clinical variation reduction, also known as CVR, can significantly improve hospital margins.
Kelly: Yeah, that sounds very interesting. So how is clinical variation reduction or CVR, as you mentioned, how is it pivotal in enhancing hospital margins?
Randi: Well, CVR can directly impact a hospital’s financial performance by addressing unwanted clinical variations that end up driving up costs and inefficiencies. And CVR can help by reducing unnecessary costs by standardizing clinical practices and eliminating wasteful tests, procedures, or just resource utilization allocation. It can also improve the care efficiency. So streamlined protocols can reduce patients’ length of stay, avoid readmissions, which is a huge issue, and enhance care coordination for the patient. And the other thing is optimizing resource allocation. By ensuring the right care is delivered at the right time, hospitals can reduce overuse while once again maintaining quality. So, hospitals that have implemented CVR effectively can see operating margins improve 2-5% while still maintaining or improving patient outcomes. And that’s significant.
Kelly: Yes, it is. So, what are three ways to think about CVR?
Randi: The way that I like to think about it is, number one, financial impact. So how does reducing clinical variation either lower cost, improve reimbursement rates, or enhance hospital margins overall? And then hospitals are judged on quality and outcomes, and rightly so, because they’re there for the patient. So how does standardization improve patient safety, reduce admissions, and ensure evidence-based care delivery? And then operationally, you want to be efficient. So how can hospitals use data analytics, clinician engagement, and lean methodologies to drive sustainable process improvements? So, each of these perspectives highlights how CVR is both a clinical and financial strategy that supports hospital sustainability.
Kelly: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, Randi. So where can I learn more about the foundations of CVR?
Randi: So, to understand CVR fundamentals, BESLER has partnered with Clinical Intelligence. And we have a three-part series that covers the program structure, process. And the third part in the series outcomes will actually be recorded March 12th, but it’s a great overview depending on where you are in your journey for CVR at your hospital.
Kelly: Yeah, those have been some great webinars, and yeah, we are looking forward to that next one coming up. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Randi, for sharing this sneak peek into your upcoming live Hospital Margin Improvement Roundtable that you’re presenting live on Wednesday, February 26th at 1 PM Eastern Time. We’re looking forward to it. Thanks again.
Randi: Thank you.
Kelly: And thank you all for joining us for this episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. Until next time…
[music] This concludes today’s episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. For show notes and additional resources to help you protect and enhance revenue at your hospital, visit besler.com/podcasts. The Hospital Finance Podcast is a production of BESLER | SMART ABOUT REVENUE, TENACIOUS ABOUT RESULTS.
If you have a topic that you’d like us to discuss on the Hospital Finance podcast or if you’d like to be a guest, drop us a line at update@besler.com.
