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With more than 3 million baby boomers becoming Medicare eligible this year alone, healthcare providers are facing the quandary of providing superior patient care while remaining financially viable.

An important part of your strategy needs to address how to achieve speed in patient care and claims processing while simultaneously improving quality. Here are six guidelines that can send you down the right path:

1. Greater Focus on Outpatient Care: Aging baby boomers, while still needing inpatient treatment for such chronic conditions as cancer and diabetes, will also require more intermittent outpatient care to manage arthritis and other less serious illnesses. That means hospitals need to shift their business model to place greater emphasis on varied forms of outpatient care programs, facilities and other types of ready access sources.
2. “If You Build It, They May Come”: Healthcare consumers have more options today than ever before. Simply adding advanced technologies or building new facilities does not guarantee patients will walk through your doors. Determine why patients would choose your facilities over competitors and redesign your business model accordingly.
3. Create Superior Patient Experience: Review every step involved in a patient’s experience from the moment they walk in the door to the time they leave to see what can be streamlined and improved.
4. Implement Technology That Works Seamlessly With Entire Patient Treatment Process: Technology should be implemented to better the entire patient treatment process. Make certain the technology you choose works hand-in-hand with your processes to make them more efficient.
5. Enlist “The Voice of the User”: Create impetus for change by enlisting prominent caregivers—the informal leaders everyone pays attention to — to encourage other team members to fully embrace new systems and technologies.
6. Revisit the Revenue Cycle and Emerging Regulations: Emerging regulations and reimbursement landmines can drag out your revenue cycle for months and years. Implement methods to improve efficiency and effectiveness so you can shorten that cycle, eliminate payment delays, and prevent penalties.

Implementing these techniques can help healthcare leaders improve communication and streamline billing and reimbursement procedures. To learn more about how these methods can address challenges regarding healthcare process improvement, read the full article Meeting the Needs of an Aging Population.