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5 Ways Healthcare Facilities Can Improve Their Financial Performance

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StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program ArticleHealthcare facility operating margins are under pressure from all sides. Uncompensated care of patients, slow paying insurance providers, reduced government reimbursement rates and rising costs are all contributing factors. Cutting staff and similar solutions risk quality of care and an extended wait time. Here are four ways healthcare facilities can improve their financial performance without adversely impacting patients.

Measure and Manage Based on the Right Metrics

The metrics you use as the yardstick for organizational performance affect how people act. Instead of seeking to get patients out as soon as possible, look at readmission rates. It would be better to invest a little more time and effort up front so that patients don’t have to come back later. This is so important that low re-admissions are necessary to join an accountable care organization or ACO. Instead of simply measuring the time it takes to discharge a patient, focus on finding the most efficient and error-free method of doing so. You want to ensure that acute patients receive appropriate self-care instructions and follow-ups so they don’t end up getting worse. You can also use data to identify opportunities for improvement, whether it is determining where to streamline operations or which profit-centers you may want to expand.

Work with Payors, Not Against Them

Healthcare facilities have no control over underpayments from government health programs. They can work with commercial and employer-based payers such as insurance carriers, and they can work with private pay patients. Healthcare facilities should take the time to understand their existing contracts and look for ways to better meet those contracts, so that they receive as much money back as possible. A common solution is renegotiating contracts.

A surprising number of uninsured patients are eligible for government programs. Work with them to sign them up for programs so that the facility can reduce its rate of uncompensated care or bad debt from those who cannot afford expensive ER and OR bills.

Reevaluate Your Suppliers

Work with your vendors to save money on supplies; that is the second largest expense in most healthcare facilities. Ask vendors about discounts you could receive simply due to the volume of items you already consume. Inquire about discounts if you ordered items in bulk and run inventory so that you don’t order items you don’t need.

Collect Data to Manage Labor Costs

In medical facilities, labor costs and labor-related costs may be more than half of all expenditures. Focusing on other areas is a waste of time if these expenses are not under control. The solution is to carefully track data on staffing and manage labor on a cost-per-patient-day level. Don’t over-staff one area and under-staff another. Make data-driven labor decisions whether hiring, firing, or assigning overtime. Hold regular meetings on managing labor rolls monthly, quarterly and annually. Don’t cut 10% across the board, but instead cut those individuals who are redundant or under-utilized. If labor costs are high in an area, you can look for third-party service providers who you could outsource the work to.

Use risk reporting software to find gaps in dynamic care, study financial trends, and determine the risks you may face based on resource allocation decisions. Then you won’t end up hurting patients with understaffing during a predictable peak demand or fall short of cash unexpectedly.

Industry surveys have found that finances are the number one concern of executives year after year. Following these tips can help you cut costs and improve revenue without hurting the quality of care patients receive.

Will Contesting for Business Assets

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleIn regards to leaving behind business assets, this can be a difficult situation in the aftermath of someone’s death if they have not left clear instructions or followed all the necessary steps to pass on said assets in a clear way. In their will, if no trust has been set up or the assets were in only the name of the person who has passed away, or you feel there was something wrong with the will presented, then contesting the will legally is an option you need to explore.

To give you a helping hand at this difficult time, this guide will take you through some of the essential information you need to know in order to move forward and make sure the business assets in question are dealt with and granted correctly to the right people.

Understanding probate

When you first consider taking legal action to contest a will for business assets, you need to know some of the essential information so that you are better able to understand your situation and rights in this scenario. To begin with, you need to learn information about probate and business assets to get a better grasp of what needs to be done, as filing for probate is a little different to contesting.

First of all, what exactly is probate?

  • Probate is a process where the deceased person’s will is taken to court with a petition to investigate the will and, in the end, distribute the business assets to the rightful beneficiaries.

When are business assets subject to probate?

  • If the business in question is solely in the deceased person’s name and they did not set up a trust, then the assets are subject to probate so that the stock can be transferred to an appropriate body.

Standing your ground

Contesting a will is dependent on having the grounds to pursue the legal process. There are several reasons to contest a will that, if you can prove, will give you the precedence to make a claim on the business assets in question:

Lack of capacity – This is where the person in question was not in a fit state to be entering into a legally binding agreement, such as a will, which then renders the document void.

Failure of formality – This is where the signing of the will didn’t comply with state laws, such as not being signed with two valid witnesses.

Under duress – This is where a will is completed, and the testator is pressure or threatening into writing the document.

Professional help with your claim

Finally, now that you know some of the essential information to move forward with you contesting of the will, you need to find lawyers who can help you make progress with your claim. Visiting the-inheritance-experts.co.uk is a good place to start as this will put you in touch with experts in contesting wills who can help you make a successful claim.

At this difficult time, make sure you take all the proper steps to see that justice is done.

How To Take Risks In Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business ArticleThere are many skills required of a person when they run a business. They need to be able to cope with lots of different situations and turn them around into successes for the business if possible. They also need to be able to manage people, deal with finances, organize marketing, and much more. Something that you might not have thought about before, but that is certainly an important trait when it comes to business, is risk-taking. There needs to be an element of risk-taking in any business if it is going to grow and thrive successfully. If you’re concerned that you aren’t taking enough risks (or perhaps even taking too many), read on to discover just how to do it right.

Search For Solutions

Risks in business should always be calculated ones. This means that you have looked at the situation you might be heading for and determined what the negative outcomes might be. Although you might not like to think in these terms, it is crucial – pretending that things won’t go wrong is a sure way to have problems because if something untoward does happen, you won’t know how to deal with it.

That’s the key; you need to know the potential negative outcomes because you need to know how to combat them if they do arise. Search for solutions for each issue that you might come across, and if they do occur you can deal with them. If they don’t, then you have nothing to worry about.

Think Long-Term

Having an idea that is a possible risk is one thing, but being able to continue once that idea has been implemented, whether the results are good or bad, is another. You need to not only think of the idea and weigh up the risks, but you need to think of the long-term for your business as well. Ask yourself what will happen if the risk you are taking does pay off, and what will happen if it doesn’t. This is important because you don’t want to take the first step and then not know where to go after that. A long-term plan is much easier to deal with broken down into smaller parts – it is also less risky.

Whether you’re launching your own Amazon associates site or building an e-commerce empire from scratch, the same principles apply when it comes to risk and long-term thinking.

Be Adaptable

Even if you do have a plan in place, you need to be able to adapt (and adapt the plan) if anything changes. Trying to continue with your original idea when you really should go in another direction won’t help you and won’t help the business. This is no longer a calculated risk but is instead a stubborn refusal to see that change needs to happen. This will hurt the business, and those being asked to carry out the tasks on your behalf could become extremely stressed by the situation, knowing it the wrong thing to do but unsure how to deal with it. A stressed employee might need time off; they might even need help from the Law Office of Scott D. DeSalvo.

Test First

You might be tempted to launch your new idea straight away because you’re so excited about it and you’re sure that it will do well. However, this is not a calculated risk – this is just a risk, and that’s not a good thing. Wait until you have all the facts and details you need to be able to launch successfully; launching a product and not having the right marketing in place, or not being sure how good that product, service, or idea really is, can be damaging to your business.

Why Having a Mentor Makes a Difference

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleStarting your own business can be a very complicated and involved endeavor. While you may have a lot of excellent ideas about the nature of your company and what it is going to offer the public, you also might not have the first idea about how to get your plan off the ground. Of course, it is important to remember to know that you don’t have to figure it all out alone. Finding a mentor might be one of the most practical decisions you make for the future of your business.

A mentor can bring about some positive changes when it comes to your business. Take a moment to look over these reasons to consider getting involved with a mentor and learn about how you can get your business ideas up and running in the most efficient ways possible.

Knowledge is Power

Often, getting started with a particular idea can be tricky from the start. If you have a very specific kind of idea for what you would like your business to be like, you might have very specific questions you need to be answered. When you are speaking to other professionals, you might not be able to get the exact answers you require. A mentor, on the other hand, is someone who has a vested interest in you and your future. He or she is going to want to help answer any and all questions you might have.

Acquiring knowledge from a mentor can help to get your business journey started in a productive manner. You will be able to turn to your mentor for everything from initial budgetary concerns to foundations you should lay early to make future expansions possible. This type of transformational leadership can make a huge difference in the direction a business heads. Asking the right questions of the right people can help you avoid serious mistakes, and a mentor can be the ideal person to turn to for assistance.

A Personal Connection

When it comes to seeking the right advice, a business mentor stands above others due to the personal connection you can forge. Your mentor is going to take a bit of time to get to know you. He or she will figure out how you operate and how you tend to make decisions of varying sizes. Your mentor is also likely to want to get to know your hobbies, interests, and anything else that might play into the way you think. This will help your mentor form a bond with you and provide insight based on your own specific needs.

The bond you form with a mentor can also provide you with a certain degree of comfort. The more your mentor gets to know you, the more you get to know your mentor. When you feel comfortable talking to this person, you are more likely to trust in the advice you are being offered. Building this trust with a professional who understands business can help you feel like you aren’t so alone on your business journey.

Play Around With Ideas

A mentor also helps you explore ideas that come to your mind about your business. It isn’t always easy to get honest feedback from people, especially those closest to you like family members or friends. When you need a sounding board, your mentor can listen to any and all ideas you might have and provide you with honest input. This can help you make the best possible decisions for your business while avoiding serious flubs.

Working with a business mentor can help put you on the right path for the future of your company. Take your time to find the right mentor for your needs and see how it can shape your plans for the best.

How to Scale Your Business Using Cloud PBX

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article
 
Scaling in business is always a big deal, because it is the only way to accurately measure growth and success. If you do not have the right systems in place, however, scaling can become very difficult. There are many different systems to scale, and not having the right framework into place can cause delays and even hiccups in your operations.

Take your telephone system, for example. Hiring more workers as you scale your business more globally means your network needs to become increasingly complex. Rather than be inhibited by these extra hires, choose a Cloud PBX system that scales with your company and doesn’t hold you back.

How Can a Cloud Based PBX Help Your Business?

PBX, or Private Branch Exchange, is a network for phone calls and other communication methods used within a company. It is how you can call different departments when you need something, and how clients can get a representative for the specific answer or solution that they are looking for.

There are a variety of reasons why a Cloud Based PBX system can help you, as it:

1. Allows for an unlimited number of lines

So you can scale up or down as you need to without any hassle. You could add people through the call routing system without even adding extra telephones to your office floor.

2. Is only limited by your own Internet’s capacity

The only limit to this tech is your Internet speeds. If yours are slow, try contacting a few internet service providers today to see if there are new plans available to upgrade or switch to.

3. Has one bill to pay

When you choose an all-in-one service, you don’t have to worry about what services you use and which you don’t, because all of it will be on one bill.

4. Is easy to set up

Choose the right company, and they will set up the entire system for you without a hitch and at no extra charge.

5. Offers seamless communications

Once you have your cloud based PBX system set up and running, you can then enjoy seamless communications between departments. Boost productivity, improve customer service, bring in more business, and everyone’s happy!

How to Scale Your Business Using Cloud PBX

Choosing the best Cloud PBX will depend entirely on your budget and needs. In most cases, however, being able to pick and choose which features your company needs will always be your best bet. That way you can choose the best VoIP for small business operations now, and then include more services in your plan as you scale up seamlessly.

Choosing systems that can be scaled with ease is the best investment you can make for your new company. You won’t need to reinvest or overhaul your operations just because you hired a few new people or even created another department. Instead, you can simply set them up. That is the power of cloud computing. That is the way you will grow and succeed.