Open More Beds During COVID

How hospitals and risk-bearing ACOs can manage patients safety and more cost-effectively

Patient safety has always been a concern of providers—and even moreso during the pandemic.

In 1999, the number of deaths were estimated to be as high as 98,000 by the Institute of Medicine’s “To Err is Human” report. After the release of that report, the healthcare industry underwent a significant shift in how it prioritized patient safety. As the past 20 years have shown, patient safety is of paramount importance to the healthcare field.

These days, however, that call to patient safety is being tested as healthcare providers grapple with two concurrent and unprecedented threats to safety—a steep rise in in-patient volume during each surge of the pandemic coupled with the (related) severe labor shortage as healthcare workers leave the workforce in unprecedented numbers. In the face of these challenges, hospitals and risk-bearing ACOs also face a third threat—they are being increasingly paid for “value over volume.” READ THE FULL CASE STUDY