Ambulatory healthcare leaders face increasing pressure to improve performance while managing costs. A significant challenge given persistent workforce constraints, reimbursement shifts and evolving patient expectations.
A recent webinar hosted by Becker’s Healthcare and NextGen Healthcare explored how organizations are responding through seven key efficiency levers, based on insights from a survey of 195 industry leaders.
Here are four key takeaways:
1. The shield and sword
Despite its critical importance, only 34 percent of respondents said revenue cycle transformation was part of their efficiency strategy. John Polikandriotis, CEO of South Florida Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine argued this is a missed opportunity.
“RCM is both a shield and a sword,” said Mr. Polikandriotis. “It’s a shield because it protects us from the denials and audits, but it’s also a sword because it provides the resources to grow and to be innovative.”
His organization improved RCM by prioritizing patient-facing financial transparency, compliance, automation and a team-based culture, where RCM is integrated across clinical and front-office teams.
Sri Velamoor, president and COO of NextGen Healthcare echoed this and emphasized a market shift, where investments are focused on front-end capabilities to reduce back-end cleanup. Taking this approach, one client improved days in accounts receivable by 16 percent and increased payments by 32 percent over a year.
2. Smart staffing beats scaling headcount
Staffing remains a critical issue, 40 percent of survey respondents cited shortages, and 52 percent said adding just 10 percent more nonclinical staff would boost patient access. But growth doesn’t have to mean more bodies.
“My goal is to create something that flows smoothly versus stop and go traffic,” Mr. Polikandriotis said. “We’re living in a time where technology and AI is really coming to fruition. How do we develop technology to automate repetitive tasks? We’re not taking people’s jobs away, but to help people just work at their highest level. I think that’s how you create efficiency.”
His group uses process data and lean thinking to boost resilience and reduce redundancy.
Mr. Velamoor noted that leading organizations are using AI tools to match staff scheduling with patient volume trends, increasing capacity by up to 15 percent without new hires. In addition, he predicts organizations can cut payroll costs and reduce scheduling time by 40 to 50 percent.
3. Cost containment is about reinvestment, not restriction
While 59 percent of respondents identified vendor consolidation as key to cost reduction, Mr. Polikandriotis reframed the goal.
“Cost containment creates the capacity to say yes to the right things,” Mr. Polikandriotis said. “We’re not just saving money, we’re reinvesting it strategically into access, patient experience and technology.”
Mr. Velamoor noted that many practices are discovering hidden costs across fragmented tech stacks. For him, Consolidating platforms improves not only cost but also staff efficiency and patient experience.
“Folks are paying someone for the patient communications tool, the digital front door, payments and so on,” Mr. Velamoor noted. “We are seeing better visibility into total cost ownership to drive to an outcome in a particular part of the practice and being thoughtful about integration.”
4. Ambient AI boosts performance
Michelle Tanner, MD, an otolaryngologist with The ENT Center in Macon, Ga.
shared how adopting ambient AI documentation enabled her to maintain productivity despite staffing shortages and even enhanced it.
“Ambient tools save my staff time to be doing other things,” said Dr. Tanner, “My notes are better. It’s better communication for my surgery schedulers and they can see exactly what I told the patient.”
While some physician colleagues are slower to adapt, the trend is gaining traction.
She noted a cultural shift underway in her practice. Her advanced practice providers have all adopted it, and the organization reduced their staffing by 50 percent.
Though only 28 percent of leaders view growth as an efficiency lever, the panelists stressed that scalability must be baked into expansion plans. Mr. Velamoor added that organizations succeeding in scaling efficiently are investing in standardization, playbooks, and technology extensibility.
Panelists urged peers to embrace cultural change. Dr. Tanner added, highlighted the importance of being open to change to benefit efficiency and operational resilience.
“Be willing to try something you haven’t done,” Dr. Tanner said. “It’s not the way you’ve always done it, but just being willing to try it and see how things go and pivoting and being flexible along the way.”
