Healthcare Finance Efficiency and Effectiveness: Three Perspectives Essay

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Healthcare Finance

Efficiency and Effectiveness: Three Perspectives

Define and describe efficiency and effectiveness. What are the differences between efficiency and effectiveness? How can a healthcare organization use this information?

Efficiency refers to the accomplishment of a task or a set of tasks in the most economical fashion, both in terms of time spent and resources utilized. By contrast, effectiveness refers to the ambition of achieving the best possible results from completion of a task or a set of tasks. What they have in common is that they are both critical dimensions of the provision of healthcare. However, there may be some imbalance in how they are applied.

This is shown in an article by Treven (2012) which indicates that some healthcare practitioners view effectiveness and efficiency as being at odds with one another. According to Treven, "the author of a recent NY Times opinion article, Gilbert Welch, argues that we are not putting enough effort into challenging standard practices in medicine, but instead focus too much on accommodating and streamlining those practices already established, and on coming up with ever new diagnostic and screening tools, treatments and procedures to spend health care money on." (Treven, p. 1)

The focus on streamlining seems to be based on economic imperatives.

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In other words, many hospitals and healthcare facilities are more concerned with moving patients through their system and toward discharge than they are with achieving the best possible healthcare results. The consequence of this is that too many patients are receiving limited attention and inadequate treatment, especially with the pressure often placed by insurance companies to limit hospital stays and treatment options.

A healthcare organization should use the information here to recognize that effectiveness and efficiency are not counter-intuitive to one another. Hospitals need to focus on effectiveness of care. The result will be fewer return patients and, consequently, a more efficient operation. Simultaneously, strategies for improving efficiency should be patient-centered.

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"Healthcare Finance Efficiency And Effectiveness Three Perspectives" (2013, September 29) Retrieved June 4, 2026, from
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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/healthcare-finance-efficiency-effectiveness-123367
   

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