 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Eleanor May Travers, MD, MHA, Medical Director, MedEcon, Inc., 845 Coach Way, Annapolis,MD 21401-6477, MD, 410-849-8061, traversmd@att.net
Why Measuring Demand for Services is Critical to a Health Care Organization's Survival
E.M.Travers, MD, MHA
Health care organizations (HCO) in community and urban settings do not control the demand for services – they react to it. HCO managers often minimize the influence of demand factors because they are unable to accurately measure it. This is unlike traditional business settings that focus on rigid, fact-based demand analyses of why product sales/services increased or changed, and what factors are the root cause of these changes.
In health care organizations (HCO), like businesses, there are serious secondary effects when the HCO has an inadequate demand measurement capability. These include budget shortfalls, the inability to provide adequate professional staffing and equipment to meet special needs and loss of reimbursement for work performed but not captured.
The general causes of these problems are rooted in inadequate information systems within the local organization, plus poor data roll-up capabilities if the HCO is part of a health care system. One root cause of inadequate measurement of health care demand is lack of uniformity in data collection and processing at the local health care site.
This session discusses the tools and methods needed for HCOs to develop or improve local demand measurement and analytic capabilities. It provides insight into causal industry and environmental forces and factors that negatively influence the demand for services in their own unique organization. It discusses techniques for maintaining knowledge of their case mix composition, complexity and volume to sustain adequate funding and reimbursement in a changing economy with shifting priorities.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Health Information Systems,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Not applicable
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.