Shopping Tips to Save Hospitals Money

Today is Cyber Monday, so don't be surprised to see a few of your staff stealthily shopping for that perfect holiday gift instead of toiling for the organization. Though it's an online retail event, Cyber Monday does offer healthcare CFOs some important reminders about their own operations.

Use technology to save money. I often interview financial leaders who talk about needing the right data to drive decision-making. If your organization hasn't bought in to the idea of using analytics for decision support, then you'll be left behind as healthcare reform hits its stride in 2014.

In the September edition of HealthLeaders magazine, Cleveland Clinic's CFO Steven Glass explained how the multispecialty academic medical center handles 4.6 million patient visits annually. Glass uses data dashboards to continually gauge how the organization is performing. He's able to look at volume, occupancy, patient satisfaction, quality metrics, utilization, cost, and numerous other areas. Cleveland Clinic deployed its first dashboards eight years ago. Today, dashboards update data every 30 minutes.

"It's critically important for executives across the organization. It is a way that, as the CFO, I know are we having a good month or a bad month," Glass told HealthLeaders Media. "Long before you see revenue numbers and expense numbers, if you really know your business and you track it pretty closely, you can see where you've got trends in different parts of your organization."