7 Ways to Improve Patient Outcomes in the New World of Value-Based Care

Hospitals around the world are under increasing pressure to improve outcomes – whether because they are operating in a fee-for-performance or value-based care environment, or simply because today’s increasingly informed patients are deliberately pursuing treatment at facilities with a reputation for superior care. Whatever your hospital’s remuneration model may be, good treatment outcomes are essential to your success. And besides, delivering the best possible outcomes is ultimately the whole point of being a healthcare provider. So let’s take a look at possible ways to get there.

Due to increasing cost pressures in the healthcare sector, established remuneration models for healthcare services are in transition around the world. Fees for performance and value-based systems are increasingly replacing fees for service. Major players including Medicare and Medicaid in the United States, the National Health Service in the U.K., the National Health Care Institute in the Netherlands, and several leading European university hospitals have all taken significant strides in this direction.1 In Germany, the proposed Hospital Restructuring Act aims for a stronger correlation between remuneration and quality of treatment. Furthermore, in newly industrialized countries, where patients pay a large share of the treatment costs out of their own pockets, the quality of treatment plays a decisive role in choosing a hospital (in addition to price and access to care).