A Physician-Led Strategic Initiative to Improve Clinical Efficiency and Reduce Costs in a Large Academic Health System

Increasing costs, decreasing reimbursement, and enhanced regulatory requirements are challenges facing the health care, education, and research missions of academic medical centers. To meet these challenges, the University of Pennsylvania Health System developed a clinical utilization management program led and monitored by physicians. The program was developed within the academic department infrastructure, with specific initiatives originating in individual departments. The initiatives focused on reductions in length of stay and managed care denials, reduction in unnecessary diagnostic study utilization, and improvement in materials management. Without adversely affecting quality indicators, the expense savings at the university hospital for the first fiscal year after the program was established were more than $4.8 million. Use of this model should be applicable for many types of health system organizations.

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