Vizient Inc.

Unpaid bills are a real pain point for hospitals.

Patient debt and the cost of charity care, excuse me, patient debt and the cost of charity care rose 16% in the first half of the year versus the year ago period, according to Vizient's Kaufman Hall Unit, whatever that is.

Quoting, as pressure from these trends mounts, hospitals may need to redesign their financial and operational strategies, the report said.

Social media is brimming with content from people like Howard who said they won't pay high bills and advise others to not pay them or who share tips on how to cut their bills.

When I came into this role, those problems existed and they still exist today.

What we realized about a year and a half ago, we got involved with the Vizient Collaborative To get a handle on our barriers, what can we impact immediately? And can we get some small wins? When it comes to APPs, I'm an APP myself.

I've been a nurse practitioner for almost 20 years.

We are the type of profession that can move the needle.

We can assist in getting the MDs more efficient in their practices.

And then also have the APPs feel autonomous and make autonomous decisions.

With that Vizient collaborative work, we worked with our ENT practice because they were most willing to collaborate with us because they noticed that there was opportunity and a gap in one of their specific supportive care clinics and survivorship clinics.

We worked with many stakeholders across the entire department, including ambulatory leadership and advanced practice leadership.

We're planning for our fiscal year starts October.

Um, and so there's a, there's a, a focus on public rankings, Leapfrog, Vizient, star ratings, right? Um, but also that loyalty measure.

So how do you do both? And so even in our strategy around what will be our strategic goals for our entire enterprise, it has to be both.

If you have 200,000 patients in the ambulatory setting, their voice matters just as much as our patients in the adult inpatient settings, right? So, um, I think, you know, the strategy has to be centered around that and understanding that if we want patients to come back to us, again, how we make them feel, how we prioritize patient experience is how we sustain and grow our organizations.

We will provide updates as they become available.

This has been the Just Health Care podcast from Kauffman Hall, a Vizient company.

I'm J. Carlisle Larson.

Thank you so much for listening.

Be sure to join us.

This has been the Just Health Care podcast from Kauffman Hall, a Vizient company.

I'm Jake Carlisle Larson.

Thank you so much for listening.

And importantly, since he's come on, they've repeatedly received the highest marks for quality in patient experience from CMS, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Vizient has ranked Rush among the very top tier of academic medical centers for quality and accountability.

They've been ranked by the U.S. News & World Report Hospital Honor Roll seven consecutive times, all of this under Omar's leadership.

They're expanding their reach, making care more accessible through robust digital experience strategy.

Be sure to join us.

This has been the Gist Healthcare podcast from Kaufman Hall, a Vizient company.

I'm Jay Carlalue Larson.

Thank you so much for listening.