A hospital is only as good as the satisfaction of the patients that avail its services. A happy patient can recommend the hospital to their friends and family creating a profitable environment for the hospital.
However, we read and hear a lot of stories about people’s negative experiences with hospitals and the bureaucracy behind hospital procedures. As we looked closer into patient satisfaction in hospitals, we identified that fluctuating hospital bills and uncertainty in the length-of-stay (LoS) at the hospital creates uneasiness and anxiety in the patient’s mind. Maximising hospital revenue alongside improving patient retention and patient satisfaction is a delicate balance for a hospital to attain and is often misconstrued as mutually exclusive.
Interdependency of LoS and Bill Estimates
Hospitals, generally, estimate the LoS to be an average of the LoS from past patient records. In one of our studies at a hospital, we found 80% of CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting) surgery patients either under-stayed or over-stayed at the hospital. This resulted in patients facing problems of varying bill amounts and having to rearrange the necessary funds all over again implying that incorrect bill amounts are a function of varying LoS, showing an obvious interconnectedness between these issues.
From this one instance alone, out of the many, it’s clear that taking an average LoS as the estimate is very inaccurate. Moreover, the longer a patient stays in a hospital, the more unhappy they become. We recognised that a novel approach was necessary to estimate the LoS accurately and reliably, and hence also reduce the fluctuation of bill amounts. So we took it upon ourselves to solve the problem of inaccurate length-of-stay estimates and hospital bill amounts, bringing SEER to life!
SEER – The Ultimate in Hospital Bill Estimation and Patient Retention
SEER is an AI/ML-powered predictive analysis tool helping hospitals maximise profitability while improving patient retention and satisfaction through accurate bill amount evaluation and length-of-stay estimation at a patient level, during the patient’s admission.
But how does it work?
The algorithm behind SEER is trained in past patients’ clinical data, demographical data and the types of surgeries that the patients went through. Once training is complete, SEER can accurately estimate the length-of-stay and the hospital bills for individual patients.
Importance of SEER
As healthcare reforms worldwide constantly evolve, there is an increased reliance on hospitals’ accounting practices to ensure patient satisfaction. In a hospital’s pursuit of efficiency, transparency and patient trust, it is crucial that patients know the exact costs and duration of a hospital’s various services. By providing accurate and relevant cost estimations as well as consistent and reliable length-of-stay estimates, SEER, therefore, becomes fundamental for care providers to establish sustainable profitability.
Let’s now see how SEER benefits patients and hospitals!
SEER and Care Providers
SEER ensures hospitals are free of the logistical burdens when newer patients are admitted and existing inpatients leave while maintaining profitability and patient satisfaction.
SEER and Patients
As much as SEER is a tool created with doctors and hospital administrators in mind, it ensures patients have a comfortable and worry-free experience at the hospital.
Future of SEER
The core vision behind SEER is to reduce the overall time a patient spends at a hospital. By improving current features and developing new features for SEER, we aim to create a comprehensive tool, realising our vision.
There is a long way to go before we can call it a complete tool and here are a few things currently in the works!
SEER is one in our catalogue of AI/ML powered tools to aid the efficacy of the medical industry as a whole. If you are interested in adopting SEER or would like to know anything more about it or any of our other products, feel free to contact us at hello@mycol.in and join the CoL family!