Health care has long been an industry thought to be recession proof. In the recession of 2008+ we are finding that thought to be false. Charity care applications have risen substantially, overall volumes and service demands are dropping, elective surgeries and treatments are being put off.
I expect that IT leaders across the nation will be taken to task by their CFO/CEO leaders to control expenses even more than we have in the past. This series will explore ten options for an IT leader to explore in order to lower costs with a short ROI and low initial investment without having to sacrifice your FTE count.
- Demand Management
- Demand Management should be a major component in your portfolio for cost reduction. Every information technology shop deals with one major issue: finite resource and infinite demand. That infinite demand can come from physicians, nurses, administration, or outside sources completely out of your control. Demand Management offers a way to scale back the infinite demand to an amount that is more capable of being delivered. More than a priority system, Demand Management forces your customer to take on a large portion of the responsibility for the project. The true stake holder must provide real business metrics and ROI, rather than just presenting an “I want this now” attitude. In a priority system we are often burdened with having many “#1” priority projects with no way to really tell which project has the most value. This often gives way to the loudest customer getting their way rather than the most valuable project. The priority system will cost you extra dollars due to the wrong projects being assigned, the wrong resources being assigned to them, and the extra efforts that must be passed around several projects instead of focusing on specific projects. When building your demand management system make certain to tie your system directly to your division’s strategic plan. Here is an example Demand Management flow:
