Enhancing care efficiency & effectiveness

The aim of efficiency in healthcare is sometimes seen as being about ‘penny pinching’ at the expense of patients.  However, being efficient with available resources is not at odds with improving patient experience and outcomes.  High quality care is typically more cost effective than poorer quality care.   

There are many examples of this.   

Reducing rates of infections in young babies in a neonatal nursery not only improves the health of the babies and the mental wellbeing of their parents, but substantially reduces the likelihood of prolonged stay at significant cost to the health service.    

Similarly, if the care needs of a young person with multiple chronic healthcare conditions are well coordinated, they are much less likely to need to turn up multiple times per year to the Emergency department and less likely to have to be admitted to hospital.  This has significant benefits for the young person and their family as well as reducing costs to the healthcare service.   

The more efficiently health resources are used, the more children & families can be cared for and the better the outcomes are likely to be for children and their families.   

CHA therefore supports members to assess & improve the efficiency & effectiveness of their services through a robust program of data sharing, analysis & peer to peer sharing & learning.

Learn more about Benchmarking Operational Efficiency services and our Activity & Costing Benchmarking Program