WASHINGTON—What’s good for General Motors may be good for health care.
In the 1990s, GM learned from “quality gurus” how to eliminate waste and improve quality in auto manufacturing. Now, in an effort to leverage the $4 billion GM invests in health each year, the company is applying the same kind of thinking to health care.
Upon request, GM is sending free “SWAT teams” of efficiency experts to hospitals and health plans in networks that serve GM employees. The teams spend several days observing various departments and recommend ways to eliminate processes that are duplicative or unnecessarily burdensome. The result: reduced waste and improved quality of care.
GM has helped hospitals reduce OR and ED costs by up to 40%, Bruce Bradley, director of GM’s managed care plans, said at a health policy conference here. One team helped the Cleveland Clinic cut its average discharge time from eight to two hours, reducing the average inpatient LOS by half a day.
