SAP has revealed findings from a survey of 100 healthcare executives conducted by Porter Research in December 2018.
The commissioned survey, which focused on current difficulties in the healthcare environment, included responses from leaders at 98 U.S. organizations (acute care hospitals and integrated delivery networks with more than 300 beds). Seventy-one percent of respondents were C-level leaders such as CIOs, CFOs and CEOs, while 29 percent were vice presidents and directors from finance, operations and administration teams.
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When asked about the top challenges their organizations are facing, 62 percent of respondents listed declining reimbursements and 53 percent cited the patient experience. Other top responses included maintaining and upgrading IT (48 percent), cybersecurity (46 percent) and difficulty finding and retaining qualified staff (46 percent).
Participants also weighed in on how to solve a few of these issues.
For instance, because reimbursements are declining, organizations are looking for new ways to reduce costs. Thirty-seven percent of executives said technology will support improving efficiencies to cut costs. They also noted that integration and visibility of clinical and financial data will have the biggest impact on decreasing costs or increasing revenue.
And when questioned about what technology will have the greatest impact on improving the patient experience, 52 percent of executives said data sharing between payers, providers, government and the industry.
Additionally, an SAP whitepaper about the survey results includes a few suggestions health systems can keep in mind for tackling these problems.
To implement strategies for cutting costs, the whitepaper suggests health systems evaluate technology gaps and understand data silos and workflow barriers. Then they should bring together these insights to drive best-practice processes.
When it comes to becoming more patient-centric, the whitepaper recommends organizations quantify the current patient experience, establish the ideal patient experience and define a path to better patient engagement. “Objectives may begin with small cultural or process shifts and move toward large technology investments,” it notes.
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