(3/9/2020)
The new calendar year brings about exciting advancements and changes within the healthcare industry. With these changes come new regulations and other cost-consuming factors, and a new challenge arises: How do you reduce costs while improving patient satisfaction, increasing rate of efficiency, and continuing to boost revenue year after year?
Reaching these goals is possible, but enhancing your facilities’ capabilities without negatively impacting your ROI will require a closer look at how your facilities are performing. With reductions in full-time staff, more organizations than ever are having important work completed by contracted companies, which ultimately impacts the bottom line. Unnecessarily contracting out work wastes time and benefits while consistency suffers and costs increase. Contracted employees also do not have the same breadth of knowledge as internal employees, which can contribute to lesser quality work.
We’ve identified four reasons you shouldn’t rely too heavily on costly external services, but rather leverage the talented employees you already have.
- Valuable Time is Wasted
Internal employees tend to be more diligent and have an established loyalty to the organization and a better understanding of customer needs. They are also readily available to complete repairs and maintenance. With contract work, turnaround time is ultimately dependent on the contractor’s availability. A contractor could be delayed, have competing priorities or a limited knowledge of your facility. These factors can quickly consume valuable time within healthcare organizations.
- Limited Internal Knowledge
There’s no doubt that individual experiences and comfortability within the workplace ultimately affect employee productivity. A full-time employee gains intimate knowledge of their facility, organization and procedures over time. They have the ability to assist in other areas beyond their primary job description, such as help at off-site locations, mentor less experienced techs, and give feedback on how your facility operations may run more smoothly. These benefits cease to exist with external contracted employees who have no sense of loyalty or incentive to excel in their work.
- Lack of Consistency
There is often a lack of coordination when multiple contracted sources are touching your facilities at different times, and that is reflected in your regulatory documentation. Multiple hands with multiple levels of experience allow for missing data and conflicting reports. Reliable, full-time employees allow for the standardization and consolidation of documents so your facility is always survey-ready.
- Increase in Cost
When healthcare leaders set out to cut costs, often the immediate solution is to reduce areas they can easily control, such as in-house labor and salaries. This isn’t a good approach, however, as these temporary savings can ultimately end up costing double. There is a short-term savings by eliminating full-time employees and their salaries, but with fewer staff, companies are then forced to outsource work with expensive external contracts that used to be handled internally. Not only can external contracts add up to cost more, but facilities also don’t have the timely and reliable service they once did. By reducing external contracts, organizations are able to work towards self-sufficiency, and having a trained and skilled worker in-house is more valuable overall. This is why investing in your employees is key to having a financially stable organization long-term.
The difference between a contracted versus full-time employee goes far beyond just the numbers. Eliminating even a single contract in the near future allows you to take a step towards improving your ROI. Taking these thoughts into consideration, you can begin to curb wasteful spending while multiplying your facilities’ capabilities.
Want to learn more about Medxcel’s effective facilities maintenance strategies? Contact us at
info@medxcel.com or 855-633-9235.