Reporting to Improve Resource Utilization
Hans Morefield, SVP Strategic Partners, SCI Solutions
Answers to many key questions at hospitals are too frequently just estimates…“Our no-show
rate is about 15 percent” … “Dr. Smith is a key referring doctor”… “Our MRI machine is always busy”
are examples of statements that typically are not supported with actual data.
While the comments may be fairly accurate, having the data that answers these questions more precisely and reviewing this data frequently better serves hospitals. This article examines the value of management reporting in measuring the effectiveness of the access management process.
What is the hospital’s no-show rate?
No-shows are a waste. For each patient that does not keep an appointment, the provider has wasted effort in scheduling the appointment and pre-registering the patient, and has blocked a time slot that may go unused. In addition, the provider loses anywhere from $50 to $2,500, depending on the service.
The no-show problem must be addressed—but to do so requires data. Which departments have the highest no-show rates? Which appointments? What is the effect on no-show percentage for patients who received reminders? With these answers, the right no-show solutions can be implemented and their efficacy measured.
A meaningful answer to what is the hospital’s no-show rate should be: “Well, last week in Radiology it was 6.2%, with mammogram no-shows at 12%. Overall it is 5.1%, which was an improvement over the prior month.”
Who are referring patients to us?
Ordering/referring doctors are the lifeblood of a hospital. Surprisingly, many hospitals have little data on the source of their referrals or the data is quantified infrequently and reviewed even less often. In the private sector, whether it is a Global Fortune 500 company, or a small local one, customer sales information is a pre-requisite for doing business. Unfortunately, this is not the case with most healthcare providers.
An Access Management system captures tremendous data on ordering/referring doctors. Every appointment records a referral from a physician, what they referred, for which patient and insurance plan, how far in advance of the appointment day, and more. With sophisticated management reporting from their Access Management system, hospitals can not only view the numbers of referrals by doctor (tracking which are increasing and which are declining), but also assess patterns by department, appointment type, and even whether the patient is ultimately keeping their appointment.
With good reporting, hospitals can stay closer to their referring doctors, assess their relative value, and respond better to their needs and issues.
How busy are the hospital’s resources (rooms, equipment, people)?
Resources are a hospital’s greatest expense (whether the operating expense of staff or the capital expense of equipment and rooms). In these tough reimbursement times, maximizing the efficiency of resources is very important to sound financial health.
A very good patient/resource scheduling application is a required starting point for resource efficiency because such systems will book each resource’s schedule very tightly. Nevertheless, scheduling is not the full solution; analyzing a resource’s actual utilization (how busy were they last week, last month, etc.) is part of the solution. With the precise answers on actual utilization, a manager/administrator can assess methods for increasing utilization (if they are less than ideal) such as different scheduling rules, more marketing to referring physician’s, and/or changing, if possible, the resource’s roles. If a resource’s utilization is consistently full, then the manager/administrator can assess whether an additional resource would be a wise investment.
From no-shows to referring physicians to resource utilization—data collected and reported by a comprehensive scheduling system adds a valuable new dimension to management’s view of the hospital’s productivity and profitability.
client quote:
“With SCI we reduced our lab monthly denials from $23,000 to 0, and increased utilization from 400 average orders a month to 3,230, as well as improved patient, physician and staff satisfaction.”
Eisenhower Medical Center
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