They depend on investment income, spending reserves or corporate subsidy to survive.
If you are not profitable, how can you invest in safety, quality and patient satisfaction?
The answer is actually simple. Organizations that have set high safety and quality standards and have developed a culture that enhances physician, staff and patient satisfaction have lower costs.
Study after study has demonstrated that high-quality with patient safety lowers cost. If there is a commitment to drive your patient and employee incident rates toward zero, costs will decrease. How would finances be affected if surgical complication rates, lost employee days due to workers compensation, and readmission rates were much lower in your hospital than they are now?
LifeWings recently completed a patient safety improvement program at a two hospital system in central Illinois. by focusing on creating a culture of safety the two hospitals reduced staff turnover, dramatically lowered their patient mortality, and improved their employee and patient satisfaction.
Net result? They produced a 16% profit margin. Quite remarkable when you realize that the average profit margin in the industry is 3%.
Not only is patient safety the right thing for your patients, it's the right thing for your bottom line.