Hospitals – delivering better outcomes

Hospitals and healthcare systems around the world are increasingly struggling with long backlogs of patients waiting for care, costs that are rising more quickly than budgets and revenues, and shortages of skilled staff. While it is widely recognized that reductions in length of stay (LOS) are perhaps the quickest way to meet each of these challenges, the inherent complexity of patient flows often keeps hospitals from reaching needed levels of improvement. 

This puts ever more pressure on staff, who may already be struggling, and risks jeopardizing the quality and safety of care, while patients are disheartened with long waiting times. 

We help our clients achieve rapid reductions in length of stay within hospitals and across care chains by rethinking patient flow to offer a simple, accurately targeted solution to this complex problem.  

Our approach, known as Flowful, allows our clients to identify and focus improvement on the few things that have the greatest overall benefit. It is a patient-centered and clinically led approach to improving flow across all patient pathways simultaneously.

We have helped hospitals and care chains around the world achieve significant results within a surprisingly short period of time.

In it we adopt a system-based view to continuously identify and eliminate the greatest unnecessary sources of disruption and delay, and to synchronize the work of resources across the system to avoid the wrong patient waiting at the wrong time. 

This evidence-based and software-enabled approach takes into account the individually varying clinical recovery times of patients. This allows us to determine the optimal length of stay if patients never had to wait, and to systematically identify the causes of delay that keeps this from happening – and which causes have the biggest impact across all patient flows. We provide a ‘currency of delay’ allowing hospitals to understand the impact of various sources of delay so they can prioritize their improvement efforts on the few things that matter the most. It also shows how much disruption and delay your staff can now avoid. 

The Flowful approach offers a surprisingly simple solution for freeing up capacity that becomes trapped by the way the system operates. This allows for rapidly reducing backlogs of patients waiting for care, while also satisfying increasing levels of demand – with no additional resources. 

Flowful has consistently been shown to help hospitals and care chains around the world achieve measurable cost-saving results within a surprisingly short period of time.

When planning and designing a hospital of the future, the hospital must not only integrate new technologies but also ensure that processes meet the future needs of patients and healthcare professionals, and the functional aspects of the facilities align with the strategic goals. 

Without a clear plan for the future hospital and its role in the service network, the investment will not support achieving of strategic targets, or will be spent on the wrong things. A lack of functional optimization leads to inefficiencies in processes, increased operational costs, and a suboptimal patient and employee experience. 

NHG helps hospitals arrive at a technologically advanced future with high-quality care delivery, a positive experience for patients and healthcare professionals, and efficient operations.  

NHG’s way of planning and designing the hospital of the future utilizes a collaborative, data-driven, and holistic approach to understand the specific needs, challenges, and goals of each hospital.

Hospitals can expect a better patient and employee experience, a reduction in wait times, improved collaboration among healthcare professionals, and streamlined operational processes. This helps to ensure investment money is spent where it has the greatest impact.

NHG’s team works closely with hospital stakeholders, including clinicians, patients, management, IT professionals, and other personnel, to design a customized future hospital blueprint that aligns with the hospital’s strategic goals and operational requirements. The program includes an analysis of future service needs, a thorough assessment of the hospital’s existing operations and infrastructure, recommendations for technology integration, functional process optimization, and a detailed plan for the design and implementation of the hospital of the future. 

NHG also provides ongoing change management support, training, stakeholder collaboration, and continuous improvement, to ensure the successful adoption of the future hospital design and its functional aspects. 

Thoughtfully planned and designed hospitals of the future adapt to the evolving healthcare landscape and position themselves as leaders in digital-enabled healthcare. With NHG’s expertise and experience, the hospital can expect to see a better patient and employee experience, a reduction in wait times, improved collaboration among healthcare professionals, streamlined operational processes, and increased sustainability and patient safety. 

Simultaneously, a well-managed planning and design process helps to ensure that the investment supports the strategic goals of the hospital and that money is spent where it has the greatest impact for peoples’ health and wellbeing.

Hospitals around the world are struggling with rising operational costs, diminishing reimbursements, and financial pressures that threaten their ability to deliver quality patient care. Inefficiencies in resource allocation, outdated processes, and uncoordinated cost cuttings often lead to wastage. 

The rising operational costs and financial inefficiencies place a heavy burden on hospitals, leading to financial instability. This situation often results in cutbacks, which impact the quality of care, increase patient wait times, and cause discomfort and dissatisfaction among both employees and patients. 

NHG can guide your hospital towards a path of financial stability and operational excellence. Through the program, NHG helps to identify improvement opportunities, streamline processes, optimize resource utilization, and implement strategic financial management practices, that together ensure long-term sustainability. The end goal is a hospital that operates efficiently, maintains high-quality patient care, and is financially robust. 

NHG employs a data-driven approach to identify areas of inefficiency and opportunities for cost reduction. Our teams work collaboratively with hospital management and healthcare professionals to understand the specific nuances of their operations.

Hospitals can expect financial stability and operational excellence.

Through a combination of process optimization, workforce management, and technology integration, NHG helps hospitals implement practical solutions that deliver immediate and long-lasting financial benefits. Additionally, our offering includes training and change management to ensure that hospital employees are fully equipped to sustain the improvements. 

As a result, hospitals can expect a significant reduction in operational costs, improved efficiency in resource utilization, and increased patient satisfaction. Through the program, hospitals can expect to see a measurable improvement in their financial performance, with a focus on long-term sustainability. The program also aims to enhance the hospital’s reputation by providing a better patient experience and maintaining high standards of care.

The healthcare industry faces significant challenges in delivering seamless, human-centric services. Many hospitals struggle with fragmented and outdated service workflows that lead to suboptimal patient experiences, inefficiencies, and increased stress among healthcare professionals. 

Inefficient and organization-focused service workflows result in increased workloads for healthcare professionals, lack of value-add time to the patient, and higher operational costs for hospitals. This inefficiency can lead to a decline in patient satisfaction and trust in the healthcare system.

Throughout this transformation, we maintain a strong focus on human-centered design principles, ensuring that patients’ and professionals’ needs and preferences are at the forefront of all design initiatives.

The program will position your hospital as a leader in human-centered care and service excellence.

Significant improvements in patient satisfaction, retention, and loyalty can be expected. The streamlining of hospital operations reduces costs and unnecessary workflows, while human-centered work environments foster employee satisfaction and reduce churn.

Hospitals face the challenge of maintaining optimal operational efficiency while ensuring high-quality patient care. While best practices exist, learning from others can be hard.  

Re-inventing the wheel is a waste of resources and slows down solving inefficiencies that reduce the quality of customer experience and the financial burden on hospitals.  

Learning from others can catalyse your hospital’s processes, reduce costs, improve patient throughput, and enhance overall healthcare delivery – all while fostering a culture of shared learning. 

NHG’s best practice benchmarking consists of conducting a comprehensive analysis of the hospital’s current processes and operational performance and benchmarking it against the industry’s best practices.

Through common development days, we facilitate knowledge sharing among hospital staff to ensure that best practices are leveraged effectively. We also help hospitals to develop a tailored roadmap for achieving operational improvements.   

Our experts offer continuous support and guidance throughout the implementation process to ensure the successful adoption of best practices. 

NHG’s benchmarking services help hospitals achieve significant improvements in operational efficiency by identifying and implementing industry best practices.

They can include findings in streamlining processes, reducing operational costs, improving patient throughput, and delivering a more positive healthcare experience.  

As a side effect, your hospital will experience increased personnel satisfaction due to smoother workflows and a culture of shared learning, ensuring that valuable knowledge is not lost and that best practices are consistently applied.

Implementing information and communication technologies (ICT) and medical technologies into a modern hospital’s infrastructure is essential but challenging – and requires a comprehensive strategy.  

Without a well-defined ICT and medtech vision, hospitals risk inefficiency, higher costs, and reduced patient satisfaction.  

A concise ICT and medtech vision can serve as a blueprint for the ICT and medical technologies in a new hospital that helps achieve operational goals, increased efficiency, more seamless digitalization, cost-savings, and future-proofing.    

Our ICT vision and strategy employs a series of workshops with key stakeholders from the hospital, including ICT and medtech professionals, clinicians, and management. 

Over the course of 2-3 months, we conduct workshops and interviews to gather insights and requirements. These allow us to understand the unique needs and goals of your hospital, and to develop a vision that aligns with these objectives and is closely tied to your hospital’s master plan.

NHG’s team, supported by written background material such as the hospital strategy, building master plan, and hospital IT documentation, then drafts a vision document that outlines the prioritized goals and critical new systems needed for the hospital.  

The result is a comprehensive ICT and medtech vision document that outlines the hospital’s goals and how technology will support these objectives.

This vision sets major milestones for implementing new systems and solutions and provides guidance for decisions, such as system launch timelines. This document serves as a starting point for initial budgeting and planning of ICT and medtech implementations, helping the hospital to make informed decisions and achieve its operational goals.  

By following the ICT and medtech vision, hospitals can expect to achieve substantial cost savings, increased efficiency, and improved patient care.

Hospitals are facing the shift towards value-based healthcare, which emphasizes delivering high-quality patient outcomes while managing costs effectively. Many hospitals struggle with the transition, lacking a clear strategy for implementing value-based care and aligning their operations with this transformative model. 

The absence of a well-defined value-based healthcare strategy can lead to increased costs, suboptimal patient outcomes, and a failure to adapt to evolving healthcare trends. This not only impacts the hospital’s financial health but also jeopardizes its ability to provide the best possible care to patients. 

NHG aims to guide hospitals towards the successful planning and implementation of a value-based healthcare system. The ultimate objective is to help hospitals thrive in this new paradigm by delivering high-quality care, optimizing costs, and improving patient outcomes. 

We start by conducting a comprehensive assessment of the hospital’s current operations, identifying areas for improvement, and understanding the unique challenges and opportunities within the institution.  

Through a series of strategic planning sessions and workshops, we collaborate with key stakeholders to develop a customized value-based healthcare roadmap. This roadmap includes initiatives for enhancing care coordination, optimizing resource allocation, and implementing outcome measurement systems.   

Our experts work closely with hospital staff to ensure a seamless transition to the new model, providing training and support throughout the implementation process. 

The anticipated results include a hospital that successfully operates within a value-based healthcare framework, achieving improved patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

By aligning operations with value-based principles, hospitals can experience enhanced financial sustainability, increased patient satisfaction, and a reputation for delivering high-quality, efficient healthcare services. Additionally, the hospital staff will be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate and thrive in the evolving healthcare landscape.