by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | April 13, 2012
"That creates pretty significant economic challenges for us, and I think most health care providers are in the same situation," Dahlen told reporters on a call Tuesday.
But Dahlen said the hospital has been able to find places to eliminate wasteful spending, such as doing away with interventions or procedures not found to have medical benefit, such as CT scans for community-acquired pneumonia.
"Rahm Emanuel has been quoted as saying don't let a crisis go to waste," he said.
The savings
Here are the 15 areas of potential savings per hospital per year, according to the study:
- Inefficient use of labor: $6.18 million
- Excess readmissions: $3.83 million
- Unnecessarily long patient stays: $3.83 million per hospital per year.
- Skill mix dollar variance: $2.38 million per hospital per year
- Unnecessary lab tests: $2.23 million per hospital per year
- Unnecessary respiratory therapies: $1.5 million per hospital per year
- Blood utilization: $1.06 million per hospital per year
- Too much overtime pay: $709,000 per hospital per year
- Preventable patient safety events (infections, medical errors): $564,000 per hospital per year
- Overuse of anti-infectives: $419,000 per hospital per year
- Excess stay in ICU: $339,000
- Anesthetic and sedation drugs: $68,000
- Non-automated purchase orders: $52,000
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