Cost Reduction Top Innovation Priority
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
HIMSS 2013 Healthcare Provider Innovation Survey reveals majority of providers feel their top priority for innovation is cost reduction
HIMSS and AVIA partnered to produce the 2013 Healthcare Provider Innovation Survey, a sampling of healthcare attitudes amongst 92 healthcare providers. The goal of the survey was to discover provider priorities as well as barriers to innovation.
As explained by HIMSS, “The data is not necessarily meant to be representative of the market, but rather, facilitate dialogue about what the market is doing to determine the top barriers to innovation and other findings as reported in the results.”
An infographic shared by HIT Consultant shows the top priority for those surveyed to be cost reduction. The combination of efficiency and leadership - namely hiring a chief innovation officer - was shown to be a recipe for success by the survey. Specifically, 65 percent of respondents ranked cost reduction as their top innovation priority and 64 percent of providers with $5 billion in revenue have chief innovation officers.
Healthcare providers also shared their thoughts on what barriers are most detrimental to innovation. Ranked third was limited investment capital with 67 percent reporting their annual innovation budgets to be under $2 million. Second ranked was cultural and management challenges, while the number one hurdle to innovation was limited personnel.
Provider’s opinions varied on progress, with 65 percent of respondents sharing that communication amongst internal staff is the dominant source of information regarding healthcare innovation. Only 20 percent have a clear definition of innovation means relative to their organization, yet 43 percent expect a return in less than two years.
The report’s executive summary states, “Providers are making progress implementing innovative solutions specifically in areas of high importance. These include: population health management, patient follow-up, predictive analytics, clinical decision support, and care coordination.”
“As shown by the survey results, innovation through IT offers opportunities to improve patient care. Successful innovation in health IT calls for integrating structure, efficiency and scale both within and across care delivery settings,’” said Carla Smith, MA, CNM, FHIMSS, Executive Vice President, HIMSS.
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