Freeing Up Revenue for the Bedside: How Signature Performance Prepares Health Systems for NPG 12

Unlocking Resources for Patient Care by Streamlining Administrative Operations

Beginning January 1, 2026, The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal, NPG 12, will redefine how hospitals think about providing safe care. For the first time, staffing and competency will be formally scored as safety measures, requiring healthcare organizations to demonstrate the correct number of people and documented competence on every shift. For many health systems already navigating tight budgets and rising administrative burdens, NPG 12 is posing a fundamental question: How do you meet a higher staffing bar without increasing total headcount or compromising financial stability?

Why NPG 12 Challenges the Standard Operating Model

Although staffing has always influenced patient safety, NPG 12 makes the connection explicit and measurable. Compliance now requires real-time evidence of staffing levels, validated competencies, accurate deployment, and audit-ready documentation for surveyors and governing boards. At the same time, many hospitals struggle because a significant portion of their workforce is consumed by administrative tasks like prior authorizations, billing follow-up, denials, documentation, and provider enrollment that pull focus from clinical care. To maintain accreditation and protect clinical capacity under NPG 12, health systems can reduce these burdens by partnering with organizations like Signature Performance. Our solutions alleviate administrative workloads, enabling clinical teams to dedicate more time where it matters most, at the bedside.

How Externalizing Administrative Work Can Increase Bedside Capacity

The reality is, healthcare organizations don’t necessarily need more people, they need the right people doing the right work with support from partners, like Signature Performance, who can guarantee coverage and adequate competency. For more than two decades, Signature Performance has partnered with healthcare organizations to reduce administrative burden, strengthen revenue integrity, and support operational readiness. By reducing administrative costs, Signature Performance enables hospitals to allocate more resources toward clinical staffing, rather than replacing clinical roles.

Signature Performance serves as an extension of the health system, managing end-to-end revenue cycle and administrative operations so clinicians can stay focused on care. Our solutions span patient access and scheduling, provider enrollment, prior authorization, coding and clinical documentation improvement, billing and denials management, account receivable follow up, and contact center operations. When these revenue cycle functions are managed by a trusted partner, hospitals can reclaim clinical capacity, reduce delays, and avoid unnecessary additions to their workforce.

Navigating NPG 12 in 2026 and Beyond

Rebalancing administrative and clinical work is more than a compliance tactic, it’s a strategic advantage. By shifting key administrative functions to external partners like Signature Performance, healthcare organizations can gain greater confidence in their accreditation readiness and reduce the risk of surprises on survey day. At the same time, financial performance can be improved through faster authorizations, stronger denials prevention, and a lower cost to collect. By relying on a partner accountable for performance outcomes, hospitals can experience operational stability and measurable revenue lift.

The operating model that succeeds under NPG 12 is straightforward: clinical staffing stays inside the healthcare organization, while administrative burdens transition to a dedicated partner that can guarantee coverage, and competency. When this balance is achieved, organizations can protect accreditation, increase bedside capacity, maintain compliant headcounts, and improve financial outcomes.

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Externalize administrative tasks with support from Signature Performance. Schedule an NPG 12 readiness consultation with Signature and align your 2026 strategy today.

Connect with our team at: sale@signatureperformance.com