With the dust starting to settle in the health care market as some providers withdraw and others reevaluate their positions, attention is focusing on quality of care issues instead of costs.
The drive to managed care and a highly competitive market led most health care organizations to divert much of their attention and resources to squeezing out cost savings. But a new survey by Computer Sciences Corp. Healthcare Group shows this is changing.
Nearly 40 percent of health care professionals identified quality of care as the primary focus of their current efforts to redesign or restructure patient care delivery models, while only 23 percent cited cost. This is in contrast to the motivations cited for previous efforts, in which cost was named as the primary reason (48 percent) and quality of care was secondary (28 percent).
“This isn’t to say the cost focus has completely disappeared,” notes Tim Hartman, a principal with CSC. “There are still enormous cost pressures. Hospitals are doing their best in a tough environment.”
With consolidation in the marketplace slowing, health care CEOs and administrators are concentrating on quality, but are finding it difficult to attract and retain qualified and committed staff — a key in any quality-driven redesign effort. The top three challenges facing patient care executives responding to the survey related to recruiting, retaining and maintaining morale of staff.
Yet less than one-third of the organizations polled use incentive plans to reward and motivate staff. Of those using incentive plans, nearly 50 percent reported a significant positive impact. Those implementing team-based rewards consistently reported positive experiences.
CEOs are also finding that their managers aren’t necessarily up to the challenge of an ever-changing environment. Roughly one-third reported their managers were unsuccessful at core competencies such as managing financial standards, problem solving with data and using information technology. Only 25 percent reported their managers were successful in using technology to improve performance.