How Beverly Hospital Succeeds at Revenue Cycle Management
By - Leading hospitals and healthcare organizations set cost-effective benchmarks regarding consistent quality of patient care, exceptional satisfaction, and community value.
Gary Marlow, Vice President of Finance for Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert Hospital, spoke with RevenueCycleIntelligence.com this week about their revenue cycle management operations as a seven-time 100 Top Hospital by Truven Health Analytics.
Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert Hospital were recognized for keeping expenses low while solidly executing operational efficiency and financial stability.
RCI.com: What are some best practices in regards to revenue cycle management?
GM: From a revenue cycle perspective, getting the most accurate information up front starts with patient scheduling and patient registration. That provides the groundwork by which claims can be billed and collected in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
The last thing you want is getting a claim submission kicking back to them then having to work their way through the institution. If you get the information up front in as pleasant a manner as possible, it saves heartache for the patient and family if the claim is processed and cleared in a judicious manner.
If you can do a clean claim from the start, that helps alleviate the patient’s and family’s anxiety. I would attribute all of this to helping to improve the patient’s experience.
RCI.com: Do you have any specific strategies to maintain operational efficiency? How have they adapted over the last seven wins?
GM: We are constantly striving to be as efficient as possible in providing the highest level of care. We believe this reward is an indication of that.
It’s a matter of being as efficient as possible in producing revenues. That’s something we’ve attempted to do year in and year out and feel we’ve made headway. We have experienced relatively good volume increases over the past couple of years and we do attribute a good portion of that with our affiliation with the Lahey Clinic.
RCI.com: In regards to the value-based care movement, how do you keep expenses low and quality high?
GM: With a great deal of effort, obviously. It’s been an ongoing focus at large. It’s a credit to our medical staff, our nursing staff, our housekeeping staff, and the entire spectrum of services and individuals at Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert hospital.
RCI.com: How do you best heighten the customer experience?
GM: If the hospital is clean and the food is hot and presentable, it makes a difference to the patients.
I will speak to new employees at orientation. I’ll ask them how many people in the room are responsible for direct patient care. Usually half to two-thirds of hands go up.
When patients come in the hospital, there’s usually either a health concern or a healthcare issue. But for almost all of those patients, there’s a level of anxiety for them and their families.
If a hospital has a cluttered hallway, what does that do to patient anxiety? If there’s a clean hallway and the food’s presented properly, and they’re greeted warmly at the door – anything we can do to decrease anxiety is good for healthcare and patient experience.
