Eliminate Waste to Lower Costs

By Midmark Medical Marketing

Team November 6, 2018

When we see something that’s broken, it can be human tendency to “go big” in making adjustments, trying to find a silver-bullet fix or a grand solution. But, this approach makes it easy to overcomplicate the obvious. Minor tweaks in daily processes can add up to big outcomes.

Dr. Tom Schwieterman, vice president of clinical affairs and chief medical officer at Midmark, and Dr. Amy Mechley, CEO and co-founder of Integrative Family Care, recently joined Modern Healthcare to present a webinar entitled, “Better Outcomes and Lower Costs: It Starts at the Point of Care.” As part of their discussion, Dr. Schwieterman and Dr. Mechley suggest care teams take a Lean look at clinical processes to simplify tasks and cut down on overproduction, unnecessary movement, defects and more. They believe that this approach, usually applied by manufacturers to reduce types of operational waste, can also dramatically improve clinical outcomes.

Dr. Schwieterman and Dr. Mechley use vital signs measurement, specifically blood pressure acquisition, to illustrate this approach. Eighty-six percent of the US $2.7 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures are from chronic disease, and Dr. Schwieterman and Dr. Mechley explain how simple adjustments in blood pressure acquisition can simplify processes, improve quality and ultimately lower disease management costs associated with chronic disease related to high blood pressure.

Join Dr. Schwieterman and Dr. Mechley for a replay of the webinar to learn practical tips for applying a Lean approach to help improve outcomes and save costs at the point of care.