Healthcare organizations are having to adapt to an aging population, rising chronic diseases and poly pathologies, growing mental health challenges, and the increasing risk of pandemics. Additionally, resourcing problems, such as recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals, directly impact staffing and quality of care.
Healthcare organizations have been coping with these issues by evolving toward a less “hospital-centric” system, with more prevention services, home care outside the hospital, and better coordination between medical, social, and care stakeholders along the patient care pathway. Hospitals are also not exempt from the impacts of climate change and the need to build sustainable and resilient organizations.
BearingPoint supports hospitals, mental health and elderly care services, and national and local authorities in implementing integrated and sustainable patient care pathways. Our offerings span the transformation process.
Strategic planning
Hospitals and healthcare providers must continuously review their strategies to align them with the needs of their patients. Workforce capacity must meet clinical demands, and services must address changing patient needs and expectations (e.g., home care, telemedicine) while meeting operational growth and development targets.
BearingPoint supports public and private hospitals and care delivery organizations by completing a comprehensive diagnosis (data analysis on local patient health needs, health care delivery capacity, market share, and competitive analysis) and defining the hospital’s vision, strategic goals, and priority patient pathways. We also co-design and develop patient pathways and strategies with healthcare professionals (diagnosis and areas for improvement) and draft the strategic roadmap report and monitoring.
Rethinking demand and capacity
Given resource scarcity, hospitals have been reviewing their bed management strategy and adopting more coordinated models, including between care providers. BearingPoint supports hospitals in understanding their needs through detailed patient flow analysis, developing a target bed management framework and protocols, and building resilient models designed to mitigate future crises.
A new delivery model centered on streamlined patient care pathways
Healthcare organizations must consider patient care pathways with greater stakeholder coordination. We support our clients in designing and delivering a more positive patient experience by using lean management to reengineer patient pathways and optimize supporting processes such as supply chain management, the goal being to reduce non-patient facing time for healthcare professionals while improving quality of care (lower diagnosis delays, accelerated treatment).
We also design and implement integrated care programs that provide end-to-end services with human support to manage care throughout the patient care pathway. These include coordinating hospitals with primary and social care services and organizing new services supporting patients outside hospitals: outpatient surgery, home care, and hospital-at-home programs. We help hospitals, care homes, and home care providers adapt to “stay home” as long as possible by deploying these new types of services.
Improving the patient experience
Hospitals are enhancing patient relationship management by becoming more humanized and accessible organizations, reducing patient efforts for contact and orientation, and providing more personalized care services. BearingPoint supports hospitals in optimizing contact centers and designing care management portals for patients and clinicians, such as improving appointment management and optimizing administrative processes.
Developing and implementing sustainable care strategies
Hospitals are not only impacted by the climate crisis but also contribute to increased levels of greenhouse gases and waste (healthcare systems represent 4.4% of global emissions). Climate imbalance is recognized as contributing to the rise in new diseases and the increased incidence of specific diseases, adding pressure on healthcare resources. BearingPoint and our expertise from I Care by BearingPoint support transformations toward sustainable models of care in the following areas: designing a sustainable strategy, carbon footprint evaluation, green IT, and procurement strategy and implementation.
Improving HR strategy and workforce organizations to attract and retain employees
The Covid-19 pandemic significantly tested healthcare professionals, who continue to face lingering effects. Hospitals and HR departments must rethink employee value propositions to attract and retain healthcare professionals. BearingPoint brings its expertise and know-how for workforce planning, organization, professional development, work-life balance, health, safety, well-being, and management and governance strategies.
