American healthcare reform continues apace in Washington, however the debate does seem to have become unnecessarily polarised by Capitol Hill’s lawmakers, who are presenting a stark choice between raising taxes or cutting care.  There is a third way, however, based around the idea of service re-design, and of improving existing service delivery to realise efficiencies in order to do more with less.

America’s Institute for Healthcare Improvement, together with health experts from Harvard and the Brookings Institution, have demonstrated that lower spend does not mean lower quality of care or outcomes.  Quite the contrary.  In 10 communities around the U.S. where health spending is lower than average, healthcare outcomes are actually better than average.

While the debate rumbles on in Washington, here in the UK such reform and redesign is already well underway, with NHS organisations looking to do more with less, making existing resources go further and ensuring the best possible use of healthcare resource.

Business intelligence is playing a crucial role in supporting this NHS economy drive – Patient Level Costing solutions such as ours are being used by NHS finance managers to accurately calculate treatment costs and get a clear indication of whether care is being delivered within income.

Controlled financial management is the key to making the best use of available resources, and encourages a more coordinated approach to healthcare delivery, involving finance managers in the clinical process more actively – and vice versa – to ensure the most bang for their buck, without impacting on quality of care.