Introducing operational efficiency in healthcare

For a business to run efficiently, it needs to spend the majority of its time and energy on its core competency and reduce or optimize the time spent on supporting functions. A healthcare provider’s core competency is patient care. The more time physicians spend with patients providing care, the more efficient or profitable a healthcare system is.

One of the primary areas to optimize in a healthcare system is resource utilization. Resources in a hospital could be assets such as medical equipment or beds. They could be special rooms such as operating rooms (ORs) or intensive care units (ICUs). They could be consumables such as gloves and syringes. Optimal usage of these resources helps hospitals reduce waste and save costs. For example, ORs are the rooms in a hospital that earn the highest revenue, and leaving them underutilized is detrimental to a hospital’s revenue. Using standard scheduling practices may leave out...