The shift to value-based payment systems makes it more important than ever for hospitals to provide an excellent patient experience, and that doesn’t stop with physical patient interactions. Even the best treatment experience can be undermined by a bill that contains unexpected charges.

Hospitals should strive for transparency in billing, but full transparency requires a system that can accurately track exactly what supplies are used with a given patient. Chesapeake Regional Healthcare recognized that connection, and it is part of the reason they approached Jump Technologies looking for an upgrade to their supply chain.

To create transparency in the supply chain transparency, JumpStock uses a secure connection with Chesapeake’s charge capture system to assign supplies to patients in real time. Hospital staff just have to select the specific patient’s name on the secure, smart handheld device they use to track inventory. The hospital knows exactly what supplies they used for a given procedure, and they can share that information with the patient.

Tracking supplies has a few specific benefits:

• It creates a greater understanding of the cost of care, even in areas that use bundled payments;
• It provides patients with greater transparency and more accurate billing; and
• It supports ongoing efforts to better understand cost, quality, and outcomes.

When hospitals understand how they use supplies, they are better able to assess their current approach to operations and make changes where they are necessary. By building a clear picture of supply use, Chesapeake was able to reduce on-hand supplies in its labor and delivery area from $6,400 to $3,800, freeing up funds they can use to improve patient care.

Read more about Cheseapeake Regional’s approach to transparency here.