Engagement and utilization are two critical areas of focus for any organization. Ensuring employees are engaged is key to maximizing productivity, retaining top talent, and achieving organizational goals. Conversely, proper utilization of resources, including pharmacy services, is essential to containing costs and ensuring optimal patient outcomes.
Interestingly, employee engagement and utilization management are interconnected. Poorly engaged employees are more likely to make errors that can lead to increased utilization, while engaged employees are more likely to be proactive in preventing errors and unnecessary utilization.
This article will explore the connection between employee engagement and utilization management in the pharmacy setting. We will discuss the importance of engagement in maximizing productivity and preventing errors and provide strategies for improving engagement among staff.
What Exactly Is Pharmaceutical Utilization Management?
Pharmaceutical utilization management (PUM) is a system used to monitor and optimize the use of medications within a population. PUM systems typically involve clinical decision support tools to help clinicians make prescribing decisions and use claims data to track and monitor medication use.
The systems are designed to improve patient care and safety while reducing costs. They accomplish this by promoting evidence-based medications, improving communication between healthcare providers and patients, and fostering collaboration among all healthcare team members.
Some PUM systems focus on specific disease states, while others are more general. No matter the type of system, all PUM systems are based on ensuring patients receive the best possible care.
How Can Employee Engagement Lead to Behavior Changes and Reduction in Pharmacy Spending for Employers?
Companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147%. The benefits of employee engagement are clear. But how can employers translate engagement into behavior changes that result in reduced pharmacy spending?
There are several ways to reduce pharmacy spending, but employee engagement is a key driver of behavior change. When employees are engaged, they are more likely to make healthy choices that can lead to reduced pharmacy spending. Here are a few ways to increase employee engagement and minimize pharmacy spending.
Encourage Healthy Habits
Healthy employees are less likely to need expensive medications to treat chronic conditions. Additionally, healthy employees are effective and take rarer sick days. There are several ways to encourage healthy habits, such as offering health coaching, providing access to fitness facilities, and offering healthy food options in the workplace.
Encourage Employees to Use Generic Drugs
Generic drugs are just as effective as brand-name drugs but typically cost much less. Employees who use generic drugs can save their employers money on prescription costs. Additionally, generic drugs are often available in lower-cost generic form, which can also save employers money.
Offer Discounts on Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Discounts on healthy lifestyle choices can help you save money and lead healthier lives. This can increase employee productivity and engagement, reduce healthcare costs for employers, and help prevent staff turnover.
The following is a list of some of the health-related discounts that you can offer to your employees:
- Healthy food: You can offer discounts on healthy food items at grocery stores or on-site cafeterias.
- Fitness classes: Some employers offer discounts on fitness classes, either through on-site facilities or at local gyms or fitness centers.
- Smoking cessation programs: Partner with local hospitals or clinics to offer smoking cessation programs or create an on-site facility if you have many employees.
- Employee assistance programs: Employee assistance programs (EAPs) provide counseling and other resources for employees dealing with personal or work-related problems.
- Telecommuting: You can allow your employees to telecommute, either all or part of the time. This can save employees money on transportation and childcare expenses and reduce stress levels.
- Flexible work hours: Try to offer your employees flexible work hours to allow them to juggle their work and personal commitments better.
- Sabbaticals: These include extended periods of paid or unpaid leave that they can use for personal or professional development.
Communicate Regularly With Employees About Health and Wellness
When employees are informed about health and wellness, they are more likely to make healthy choices that can lead to reduced pharmacy spending. Additionally, when employees feel like their employers care about their health and well-being, they are more likely to be engaged in their jobs and less likely to leave the company.
Encourage Employees to Get Their Flu Shots
While some may view this as a personal decision, there are many good reasons for employers to encourage their employees to get vaccinated. The flu is a serious respiratory illness that easily spreads from person to person.
Each year, millions of people in the United States get sick with the flu, and many are hospitalized or die as a result. The best way to protect yourself and others from the flu is to get vaccinated each year.
There are many benefits to employers who encourage their employees to get vaccinated against the flu. It can help reduce the number of sick days taken by employees and reduce healthcare costs for your organization. You also create a culture of wellness at the workplace.
Promote Healthy Eating Habits
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), unhealthy eating habits are a leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Unhealthy eating habits are also a leading cause of chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. They contribute to indirect costs, such as lost productivity and absenteeism.
Evidence demonstrates the link between healthy eating habits and improved employee productivity. A study by Business News Daily found that employees who eat a healthy diet are more productive than those who don’t.
Help Employees Manage Stress
Work is one of the leading causes of stress for American adults, and stress is a major factor in many health problems. Employees who are stressed often have difficulty concentrating, are more likely to make mistakes, and are more likely to be absent from work.
Stress can also lead to health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, and anxiety. These health problems can increase healthcare costs and lead to absenteeism.
There are multiple manners to assist your employees to handle stress. Some companies offer on-site child care and relaxation rooms. Others offer stress management programs, including yoga and meditation classes, stress-reduction workshops, and counseling services.
Offering employees ways to manage stress can increase employee engagement and reduce healthcare costs. Employees who feel supported by their employer are more likely to be productive and less likely to take time off from work.
What Are the Goals of Utilization Management?
The utilization management process is designed to ensure that patients receive the most appropriate care while maximizing the value of the healthcare resources used. The goals of utilization management vary depending on the specific setting but may include reducing unnecessary or duplicate testing and procedures, ensuring that patients receive care in the most appropriate setting, and reducing the length of stay.
Some of the specific goals of utilization management include the following.
Ensure Patients Receive the Most Appropriate Care
One of the main goals of utilization management is to ensure that patients receive the most appropriate care possible. This includes making sure that patients receive the right treatments and procedures.
Utilization management also ensures that patients receive care in the most appropriate setting possible. This can include confirming that patients receive care in an outpatient setting rather than in a more expensive inpatient setting.
Ensure Timely Services
This means ensuring patients can immediately get appointments or procedures. It also guarantees that patients receive care as soon as possible after they are diagnosed with a condition.
Ensure Cost-Effective Patient Care
Utilization management also ensures that patients receive care from providers who are in-network and that they receive care at facilities that are in-network. It also includes providing patients with care covered by their insurance.
Ensure Safe Patient Care
This includes ensuring that patients receive care from providers who have been properly trained and that they receive care at facilities that have been properly accredited. It also includes ensuring that patients receive care that complies with all applicable laws and regulations.
Guarantee a Comfortable Environment for Patient Care
Utilization management also ensures that patients receive care in a clean and safe environment and are treated with respect and dignity. It also guarantees patients access to amenities that will make their experience more comfortable, such as television and private rooms.
Increased Employee Engagement Starts With Pharmacy Utilization Management
Employee engagement and pharmacy utilization management are absolutely connected. It’s a virtuous circle that starts with understanding the connection between the two concepts. By engaging employees in the utilization management process, employers can create a more efficient and effective system that benefits the employees and the future of work.
At Refresh, we can help you by providing simple and effective HR solutions to keep your employees engaged. We specialize in employee engagement and can help you create a plan to get your employees more involved in their work and improve your pharmacy utilization management.
Our platform makes it easy for you to connect with your employees and provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions about their health. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you improve your pharmacy utilization management and get a free demo.