Safety-net hospitals, hospitals that depend on Medicaid payments for the majority of their revenues, have been squeezed from both sides for too long. Capital costs are too high. Operating costs are too high. Infrastructure requirements are too burdensome. Big hospitals are simply too expensive to function as Safety-Net Hospitals in undeserved communities. Now, finally, new ways to fight back are coming on line. Advis, a nationally recognized, premier developer of market-based solutions for the most pressing problems facing providers today, is looking to help our nation’s safety-net hospitals, now, today, before it’s too late. Conceptualizing a business strategy that revolves around Micro-Hospitals just might prove a ticket to a brighter future.
Safety-net providers have fewer resources than their counterparts; they provide care to patients regardless of their income status or ability to pay; they now have new options. Going forward, the micro-hospital must be considered an extremely affordable option for meeting the needs of these otherwise resource challenged providers and their communities. The Feds are cutting reimbursement rates while the State’s expand enrollment. Along with decreased funding came heightened competition. Care coordination problems and workforce shortages remain endemic. And with all the politics surrounding the ACA, the numbers of uninsured are rising. The goal is downsizing safety-net hospitals to make them sustainable.
Micro-hospitals can focus on the community. Why should safety-net hospitals try to keep up with large-scale infrastructure maintenance needs and a myriad of costly challenges related to upkeep and compliance that come with them. Micro-hospitals are small but punch above their weight. They have much smaller capital needs and expenditures. They benefit from much lower expenses across the board. As a leading developer of micro- hospitals nationwide, Advis knows that Micro-hospitals can deliver macro community impact.
For struggling urban communities with limited resources, micro- hospitals are part of the solution. States slowing their development need to wake up and adapt to the future of American healthcare. Moreover, state supported medical plans should consider developing specific demonstration programs coupled with targeted reimbursement to support this type of transformative healthcare. Healthcare will no longer be focused on centralized care and the large urban hospitals of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 21st century, a 300 plus-bed hospital will likely represent more burden than blessing. Technological advancements, more outpatient procedures than you can count, and greatly reduced lengths of stay–even for surgical procedures–are dictating the future of modern American healthcare. Providers need to wake up. Big hospitals don’t always make sense. Micro-hospitals deliver more bang for the buck.
Quality care isn’t about inpatient volume. It’s about meeting community needs in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Advis believes that one of the most promising of the called-for solutions for safety-net hospitals is the development of needs-focused, community-based micro- hospitals. A micro-hospital must meet all the same federal and state requirements just like a large, traditional hospital. The community gets everything required from its hospital, just in a smaller, more economical, and more economically sustainable package. If needed, micro-hospitals can continually expand their outpatient reach as the community grows and changes.
Greater flexibility also means enhanced sustainability. A micro-hospital’s smaller scale makes for a smaller footprint. A smaller footprint helps place quality care in areas previously considered landlocked. Micro-hospitals yield lower community healthcare costs. They present a sharpened focus on needed services, like emergency room services, within high-risk, underserved neighborhoods. Better infrastructure. Better service. Better care. That’s why Advis works so hard to produce market- based solutions for a clients’ most pressing problems.
The micro-hospital model is perhaps the most effective vehicle available to providers today for providing much needed comprehensive emergency services in an urban environment. Let a full-scale, efficient, profitable, modern hospital back up this important new venue of care while the safety-net becomes more sustainable where it’s most needed. Micro-hospitals do, indeed, bestow macro benefits upon their host communities.
For any questions about safety net hospitals, please contact Advis at (708) 478-7030.
