How to Improve Cash Flow & Patient Satisfaction in the Post Pandemic

The healthcare sector serves the noble profession of saving people’s lives. However, it requires huge revenue to keep its doors open and effectively serves patients. As the Covid-19 pandemic has immensely shaken economies worldwide, various challenges have emerged for hospitals and clinics to keep them running successfully.

The cancellation of elective surgeries has significantly brought down the revenues of hospitals. The prices of in-demand personal protective equipment and medical supplies have skyrocketed. Hence, improving cash flows is the only way for medical facilities to survive in the post-pandemic world.

So this blog will focus on a few crucial tips from adopting relevant hospital management software to other practical ways of improving the cash flow of hospitals and enhancing patient satisfaction. Let us begin!

How has Covid-19 Impacted the Healthcare Sector?

The Covid-19 pandemic has harshly impacted all sectors of the world, and healthcare is no different. Following are the issues that healthcare facilities are facing due to pandemic:

Decrease in Patient Volume

Governments still impose many regulations to stay-at-home in order to save the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has resulted in lowered patient visits to the hospitals. People are only showing to the hospital in case of emergencies which has hugely affected the business of hospitals.

Financial Crisis for the Patients

Pandemic has affected the household incomes of families, and they have been forced to prioritize daily necessities above their secondary medical needs. So spending money on their healthcare needs isn’t easy for the people and subsequently affects the hospital cash flow.

Operational Sustainability Challenges for the Hospitals

Carrying out the operations for the hospitals has become a tough challenge as the cash flow is low due to lesser patients intake. However, the products and services offered at the hospital still require money for the maintenance of equipment and providing rents to the vendors.

Tips to Improve Your Cash Flow

The below-given tips will provide you some valuable ways to use in your hospital to increase the cash flow:

Send Invoices Right Away

Make a habit of sending the invoices to the patient as soon as they are built so that the cash can come in faster. You can also take the help of invoicing hospital software to speed up the process. Invoicing software these days comes with an automated reminder feature that reminds customers to pay in time.

Expand Your Sales Market

New products and services that are in demand, such as rapid Covid-19 tests, RT-PCR tests, etc. should be introduced. Also, work on creating a new marketing strategy to advertise your products and services online. These small steps can have an enormous impact on the sales of your hospital services.

Check the Insurance Status of the Patients Prior to Service

It is easier to collect the payment of the services from patients who are covered under a medical insurance plan. So ask your staff to get the insurance status of the patients and add it to your EHR (Electronic Health Record). You can give priority to the patients who are medically covered, which can adversely benefit the hospital.

Streamline the Patient Workflow

The patient’s cycle time determines the overall time taken for the hospital to treat the problem of the patient. Managing the cycle time of the patient will help you identify the gaps in the entire process from registration to discharge. This will help cut down additional resources, and higher operational efficiency can be obtained.

Opt for a Reliable Hospital Management Software

A reliable HMS software can be a booster for the revenue of the hospital. Nowadays, the software are efficient enough to do mundane administrative tasks by itself. This gives you the opportunity to limit your staff requirements and save money on staff salary and other expenses.

Tips to Enhance Patient Satisfaction:

Following are some of the tips to help your hospital enhance the satisfaction level of the patients:

Improve Communication

Good communication from patient’s first appointment to his entire treatment journey can positively impact his satisfaction level. Therefore, all your staff members must be committed to facilitate respectful and friendly interactions with the patients at every stage.

Initiating the conversation, answering every asked question, and being clear and direct with the patient are some of the ways to implement it.

Spend More Time with Patients

A high number of patients feel dissatisfied if the physician they are consulting spends less time with them than they expected. Patients these days come fully prepared and have a number of queries in their minds regarding their disease. The physician must have the patience to give them an appropriate amount of time to answer all their questions.

Track Your Staff’s Progress

Make sure to hold your staff accountable for providing good service to the patients. Use patient satisfaction surveys to figure out how satisfied patients are with the quality of service provided to them.

Also, reward the best staff members so that your remaining medical staff can proactively work to improve their interaction with the patient.

Simplify the Billing Process

Streamline the billing process for your patients. An easy billing process encourages patients to pay their bills on time, in full amount, and be content with the services. Also, provide them with multiple payment options so that they can complete the transactions more swiftly and improve the cash flow for your practice.

Strive for Price Transparency

Patients get frustrated and irate when they receive hidden or surprising charges on their medical bills. Often, patients expect a service to be covered by their insurance, and when it is not, they tend to blame the hospital for it. Therefore, always make a practice of disclosing the prices and services (insured or not) beforehand to the patient to save unnecessary arguments and the end of the day.

Also Read: Need for Digitization for Managing the Laboratory Work Processes