How to Build a Business Case in Healthcare for Connectivity Investments

In this how-to guide for writing a healthcare business case, we break down the process — from defining the problem to demonstrating return on investment (ROI). With the right framework and close collaboration with your financial teammates, you can craft a sound business case to help support your healthcare connectivity proposal and set up your project for success.
 

Step 1: Define the Problem in Your Healthcare Business Case

First, clearly illustrate the problem you are facing. Hospital financial leaders are tasked with steering sound decision-making on a large scale, and they rely on honest input from the front lines to do it. Paint an accurate picture of your current state, highlighting the challenge(s) it presents.

• Link the challenge to key organizational priorities or initiatives. Does your hospital have an active initiative for hospital-acquired infections? Is your leadership focused on readmissions reduction? Where possible, tie your connected care proposal to current strategic priorities for your facility or system. Financial leaders receive many requests for investment. Show them how yours supports the organization’s top priorities.
• Be as specific as you can. Rather than broad-stroke characterizations (e.g., We need to improve clinical workflow efficiency), share real numbers (e.g., On average, our RNs spend X hours per shift on charting, costing up to $Y per year).
• Highlight the cost of staying the same. End your problem statement with an informed hypothesis on the consequences of not investing. This may include:
   

  Outcomes	Example Hypotheses
  Clinical outcomes	We predict up to X patients could spend one unnecessary day in an ICU bed due to Y
  Operational outcomes	If current trends continue, we could see nurse turnover rates increase by X% within two years
  Financial outcomes	We could face $X in lost revenue or penalties

See how connected care can help support hospital priorities 

Step 2: Introduce Your Healthcare Connectivity Solution

Briefly describe your proposed solution. If the investment size is not large enough to warrant a buying committee or RFP process, you may have a specific solution in mind. If a more in-depth evaluation process will be required, you may want to stay at a more general level.

• Back it up with data. If the solution you’re considering has been shown to address challenges like yours in the past, highlight that here (e.g., Solutions of this nature have been shown to reduce documentation time by X minutes).
• Show them what’s possible. Will you be able to leverage device integration with existing investments? Does it provide more flexible EHR interoperability than you have today? You don’t need to go into detail yet, but highlighting unique benefits early on can go a long way.
• Stay open to an RFP process. If you are proposing a specific brand, share your reasoning. (The highlights we just discussed may help.) But keep in mind that it is important to finance stakeholders to see that a range of solutions have been considered, and that your facility will receive a competitive total cost of ownership should this move forward. Request for proposals (RFPs) are often the best way to meet these objectives for your finance team and buying committees, even though they take more time and resources.

Learn more about choosing the right healthcare connectivity partner 

Step 3: Project the ROI of Your Healthcare Business Case

Now that you’ve established the need for investment and proposed a solution, it’s time to estimate your return on investment (ROI). This may include both financial calculations (“hard” or “dark green” dollars) and organizational impact (“soft” or “light green” dollars). A recent toolkit from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the National Patient Safety Foundation gives several examples of each for healthcare organizations:

It’s important to choose metrics that are meaningful for your organization. Work closely with your partners in Finance to estimate realistic costs, gains and other anticipated impacts.
 

Step 4: Establish Next Steps for Leadership Buy-in

Lastly, make it easy for your leaders to understand how the project would begin, once approved. Even at this stage, stakeholder engagement is key to get all the right people involved (Finance, IT, Informatics, Clinical, etc.). This may include further research, stakeholder meetings, forming a buying committee, capital planning reviews or a small pilot.

Learn how to plan for a successful implementation

Resources to Strengthen Your Healthcare Business Case

There are many resources available to help you prepare — including specific healthcare business case how-tos and industry toolkits.

Look for financial burden calculators specific to the challenge you are trying to address. Many online tools are available to help you estimate the financial burden of the challenges you face. For example, our burden calculators are populated with data from literature, national averages, etc., but you can change the inputs to personalize the calculations for your organization:

Lean into industry associations for healthcare business case examples. Many leading associations share resources to help hospitals, clinics and other healthcare organizations measure ROI and create effective business cases. Here are just a few examples:

• Institute for Healthcare Improvement and National Patient Safety Foundation:
  Optimizing a Business Case for Safe Health Care: An Integrated Approach to Safety and Finance
  This toolkit equips patient safety and finance leaders with tools and a collaborative approach to make a compelling business case for organizational investments that can help advance workplace and patient safety initiatives.
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:
  Toolkit for Using the AHRQ Quality Indicators
  This healthcare industry toolkit is a free resource for hospitals planning to use the AHRQ Quality Indicators, including the Patient Safety Indicators, to track and improve inpatient quality and patient safety. It includes a section devoted to helping hospitals calculate ROI.
• American Academy of Family Physicians:
  Making a Business Case for Team-Based Care
  This article, which includes a link to download a helpful proposal planning worksheet, shares guidance that can be applied to any number of healthcare business cases. Find a framework that makes sense for your organization, then personalize it with your own metrics, initiatives and data.

We’re here to help. Reach out to your Baxter representative or explore our website for more information on our connected solutions.
 

How to Measure ROI in Healthcare with Connected Care Solutions

Measuring ROI is an essential part of any healthcare business case. How can you make it most meaningful for your organization? There are many ways to measure ROI on a connectivity project, and your clinical perspective is an essential part of the process. Read our next article:

• An overview of measuring ROI in healthcare settings
• Real-world examples of how healthcare organizations have shown ROI on connectivity investments using both hard and soft metrics
• Tips for overcoming common roadblocks when gathering and sharing financial data