Intensive Care

摘要

Xerox Corp. has had a troubling couple of years, but the copier company is bent on returning to sustained profitability, in large part by aggressively cutting costs. Xerox has-downsized its staff, outsourced some manufacturing operations, and is negotiating to refinance a $7 billion line of credit. Now it's taking aim at one of its largest costs: health care. The company is in its third year of double-digit percentage cost increases, and it expects health-care coverage rates to rise by more than 20% next year. Earlier this year, Xerox joined with IBM, PepsiCo, Verizon Communications, and their common paid provider organization, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to offer financial incentives to hospitals that use computerized physician order-entry systems for prescription drugs. Such systems can reduce mistakes caused by illegible handwriting, bad drug interactions, allergies, and incorrect doses. That, in turn, reduces the chance patients will develop complications that may require long, costly hospital stays. Experts say at least 7% of hospital in-patients are victims of drug-related errors, costing an average of $5,000 in additional care. "We have to squeeze [more] productivity out of every area of the health-care industry," says Larry Becker, benefits director at Xerox.