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Going Green Drives Profit in Healthcare Industry

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Mon, May 19, 2014 @ 10:00 AM

Eco Friendly HealthcareHealing patients goes hand in hand with healing the planet, at least conceptually, so it’s no wonder that healthcare professionals pursue green initiatives in greater numbers than ever before.

The public relations justification alone can result in positive strategic outcomes for healthcare organizations looking to attract and retain new business, especially with millions of newly insured Americans looking for services. The public generally expects healthcare providers to be good environmental citizens, and those who measure up – especially those who do so in subtle and unexpected ways – often earn the community’s goodwill.

For example, groups building new facilities, renovating office buildings into medical centers or renovating their existing establishment have come to realize that obtaining Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is affordable and produces short- and long-term benefits. A study by the American Hospital Association concluded that obtaining LEED certification generally added only 0.67% to 1.24% to a project's cost -- negligible compared to the public relations bonanza that usually follows any building owner’s announcement of LEED compliance. And the technologies that earned you certification can produce significant and ongoing savings of energy, water and maintenance, sometimes returning the additional investment within months.

Existing facilities have also gone green by modifying their internal practices. Medical buildings consume a gargantuan 250kBtu per square foot per year – three times as much energy as a comparably sized office building. But now that highly efficient systems for heating, cooling, gas handling and other processes have become competitively priced, retrofitting a facility can create significant on-going savings and environmental benefits.Green Healthcare

Waste presents a similar opportunity. Every day hospitals produce 33 pounds of trash per bed. The volume is so great an entire industry has sprung up to deal with it. Today medical offices producing prodigious amounts of garbage can partner with environmentally sustainable waste processors who understand the peculiarities of handling and recycling medical refuse.

Green consciousness has even moved into treatment. The “shared medical appointment,” where several patients with the same condition meet with a specialist together, makes excellent use of time and resources. Patients get a longer meeting with the specialist, and the specialist makes more money because he can bill insurers for each person attending.

And nature itself has become part of many innovative medical practices. Decades of studies prove that interacting with nature – even looking at it through a window – has a dramatically positive impact on a patient’s mental health and likelihood of recovering. Today many medical facilities designed specifically to encourage “ecotheraputic” responses have beautiful gardens full of well-selected places where patients can sit and feel better.

Every green element you bring to your practice matters, so there’s no reason to overlook your payment processing as a possible source of environmental benefit and profit. Meet MED-RDC, or, Medical Remote Deposit Capture. With MED-RDC you can:

  • Guarantee patient payments, while only electronically converting insurance payments
  • Deposit checks without going to the bank, saving time, money and the environment
  • Allow patients to write 2-4 checks to be deposited over 30 days for urgent treatment
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Medical Remote Deposit Capture Insider's Guide

Topics: Medical

Written by Tom Lombardo