TRIMEDX President of Clinical Asset Management Dave Klumpe recently contributed a piece in Medical Device News Magazine highlighting the need for health systems to manage expenses and clinical assets by establishing a systemwide governance council.
The first quarter of 2022 brought heightened financial challenges for the nation’s hospitals and health systems. As labor shortages and global supply chain issues persisted, outpatient volumes struggled to recover in the wake of the Omicron surge.
The net result, according to healthcare management consultant Kaufman Hall’s monthly hospital report, was four consecutive months of negative actual median margins. The median change in operating margins in April was down 76% from the year-ago period.
The need for health systems to smartly manage expenses is evident. Comprehensive clinical asset management can yield both operational and capital savings while helping to ensure medical device and patient safety. While a robust, data-driven solution can yield valuable insights to guide decision-making, a practice often overlooked for clinical asset management accelerates the effort: establishing a structured, collaborative, and systemwide governance council.