Saint Luke’s Health System is a nonprofit health system in the Kansas City area. It has 16 hospitals and campuses, hospice and home care, behavioral health care, dozens of practicing doctors, an upscale living community and more. The health system employs about 12,000 people and generates about $1.6 billion in net patient revenue annually.
PROBLEM
Saint Luke’s is simultaneously dealing with staff and resource shortages, growing demand for surgical services, and the need to increase surgical service revenue. It needs to maximize available resources while reducing employee workload. In short, it needs to be able to do more with less.
“In addition, we are in a highly competitive market with both nonprofit and for-profit operators,” said Jane Peck, COO and vice president of services at Saint Luke’s Health System. “With these dynamics, we needed an approach that would give us a new strategic advantage.
“And, more specifically, about two years ago, our surgeons told us that they were very frustrated with not having more time in the operating room,” she continued. “Many of them wish to have more time OR exceed their allotted block. A lot of our OR time has gone unused and this is a big hit point for surgeons. ours.”
The root of the problem is very manual OR tools and processes. OR schedulers received thousands of phone calls each month from surgeons’ schedulers to find a time, and St. Luke’s has no easy way to make sure they’re prioritizing strategic shifts when they have extra time.
SUGGESTIONS
Saint Luke’s Health System sees this as an opportunity to go beyond phone calls and faxes – a process that has remained unchanged for many years, even with the advent of EHRs. While other software may provide some visibility into OR calendars and performance, the health system believes it needs a technology that goes beyond that.
It has turned to AI-based healthcare operations technology provider Qventus. The supplier analyzed existing workflows, processes, and resources, and gave St. Luke sees how their Surgical Solutions can be integrated with the provider organization’s EHR to address key operational challenges.
“Specifically, it demonstrated how automation will maximize our resources and free up our staff,” explains Peck. “The vendor had an end-to-end solution that could help us create more time and then fill that time in a way that aligns with our specific strategic goals.
“What we particularly like is how Surgical Solutions combines AI and machine learning, automation, and behavioral science in a way that other software doesn’t,” she continued. “We saw this as an advantage in many ways.”
Peck explains the three advantages she and her team see:
- AI and machine learning models, built on local St. Luke, will allow the organization to take more targeted action and make it easier for the end user. Example: St. Luke’s can move away from a purely rule-based system for block release, because machine learning can identify potentially unused times in advance and automatically prompt surgeons to release time. time. AI will also make it easier for those who schedule appointments to determine the best available time for their surgeon and case to schedule OR to St. Luke’s can ease the difficulty of finding time.
- Automation will help the organization move beyond many routine tasks and processes and allow employees to free up execution capacity at the top of their license. People who book in-clinic will be able to automatically view and request operating room times so OR bookers won’t have to receive multiple calls for easy cases.
- Behavioral science principles integrated into the technology will also give users a “why” and present personalized information in a way that prompts them to act in ways other software doesn’t. do. Ultimately, this will help the organization drive the engagement and outcomes it wants to achieve, such as earlier release of operations room time and goal-filled OR time.
MEET CHALLENGES ONLY
Qventus technology is an essential part of how St. Luke’s optimizes his OR resources.
“The software integrates with our EHR and it automates a touchpoint workflow with our OR schedulers, recruited surgeons and their clinic bookers as well as our affiliated surgeons and their schedulers,” Peck noted. “In fact, many of our affiliated orthopedic clinics were early adopters and found the system particularly valuable.”
New capabilities with supplier technology have enabled St. Luke’s increases OR access and fills available time more strategically, Peck explains:
- Machine learning that predicts OR times cannot be used, and then, using behavioral science principles, prompts surgeons and their schedulers to give an earlier time. This way, time already staffed OR will not be used, and the time is given far enough in advance that it can be optimized for the best case.
- As new times come, machine learning models that predict the best time OR surgeons are available based on their practice patterns, past performance, and St. Luke. It will then automatically provide this time OR preference directly to the surgeon.
- Vendor technology also allows St. Luke’s creates a smart marketplace for surgeons and their schedulers to request time OR without logging into the EHR. They can see the time OR available in seconds, with results prioritized based on their search criteria. When independent surgical approaches are looking for time OR, they often look to St. Luke’s first because it’s much easier for them to find a time that works for them.
- Additionally, analytics helps OR teams find actionable improvement opportunities now, rather than just providing retrospective perspectives. EHR already provides some PDF reports that are difficult to analyze, but with new technology, organizations can view this data and drill down to see the performance of specific lines of services or surgeons to enhance their understanding. participation.
RESULT
Results in the first year were impressive — and better than expected, says Peck.
“I mentioned that our surgeons have complained about approaching OR time,” she notes. “With Qventus identifying potentially unused OR blocks of time and prompting surgeons to release them ahead of time, we’ve seen over 700 hours of OR time blocks released early last month, with over 45% performance usage of that time We also increased the block release time OR to eight days before the default auto-release.
“Additionally, we’re now consistently getting around 80% uptime in our primary ORs, which helps make our available resources more efficient and also reduces their pooling frequency.” I have to stay late,” she added.
As a result, St. Luke’s was able to perform 7% more surgeries despite having to close 20% OR at times. The organization is currently meeting or exceeding budgeted volumes.
“We’ve also improved employee satisfaction,” Peck reports. “Our post-surgery services are operating at peak performance and in a way that is more aligned with our strategic goals, which means increased revenue and greater use of existing resources – All of which eases the burden on our team.”
TIPS FOR OTHER PEOPLE
“I advise vendors not to accept what their EHR is offering them right now,” advises Peck. “No matter how much you like your EHR or how comfortable you are with it, it’s not designed to get your postoperative program where it needs to be. Don’t expect your EHR to do anything. it is not designed.
“Every provider organization is disappointed that digital technology doesn’t deliver what was promised, but there are new digital technologies that can tie the entire post-operative process together, eliminating the be efficient and free your employees from much of the time-consuming manual work,” she continued.
Most suppliers are in a situation where they cannot easily add additional resources to solve the problem; that means making the most of existing staff and resources with technology that enables employees to perform at the highest level of their license, she added.
“If you need a new strategic edge in your market, you can’t just use the same tools as everyone else,” she concludes. “We are the first to enter our market with this automation technology, which is giving us a distinct advantage. You can’t wait to bring these capabilities, but that would lead to a large opportunity cost.”
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
