Reducing Wait Times Protects Revenue: Understanding the True Cost of Testing Bottlenecks
Categories: blog
When people decide where they’re going to have their health care needs met, the treatment experience is a large part of the equation. If someone has a busy schedule – trying to balance the demands of their job, their family, and everything else they’ve got going on – being able to be treated quickly is a top priority. One factor that impacts the speed of treatment is how long it takes for diagnostic tests to be performed.
The Longer Your Patients Wait for Diagnostic Tests, The Less Happy They’re Going to Be
Health care revenue is determined, in part, by patient satisfaction scores. Patients are generally asked to rate their experience as a whole, which means that one portion of their experience can affect the overall satisfaction score – even if instances where the desired clinical outcomes were achieved.
Unhappy Patients Have a Negative Impact on Revenue
Wait time lengths matter. Patients don’t appreciate spending time in waiting rooms, no matter how nicely they’re appointed. Patients who experience long wait times consistently report lower patient satisfaction scores. And in instances where there’s another health care provider available – which is often the case for sports medicine, pain management, and other specialists – long wait times may be the factor that leads your patient to get their healthcare elsewhere.
Breaking the Bottleneck: Increase Diagnostic Testing Capacity
Diagnostic images are essential to proper patient care. One way to decrease patient wait times and increase satisfaction scores is to provide testing on site, as efficiently as possible. This is already the practice of many ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient clinics, but patient demand can quickly outpace facility capacity.
In these instances, it’s well worth exploring whether adding one additional unit of diagnostic imaging equipment – such as a C-Arm, Mini C-Arm, Ultrasound system or X-Ray machine – can address several areas of concern at once. Patient care is obviously the top priority, which means it’s important to choose reliable, proven top performing diagnostic imaging equipment. The patient experience is improved by having diagnostic testing quickly and conveniently available.
Save Money by Choosing Refurbished Diagnostic Imaging Equipment
Another way to protect revenues is to control costs. Refurbished diagnostic imaging equipment delivers the same high quality images and reliable performance as equipment purchased directly from the manufacturer at a fraction of the price. In many instances, it’s possible to save up to 40% – thousands of dollars. To learn more, including what flexible financing options are available, click here.