Process Re-engineering Can Produce Results, Lumeon Finds

A rigorous look at organizational processes, perhaps bolstered by new technology, can produce big savings in almost any industry. In health care, Lumeon finds that this kind of process re-engineering can improve outcomes and the patient experience too–the very Triple Aim cited as goals by health care reformers. A bad process, according to Robbie Hughes, Founder and CEO for Lumeon, can be described as, “The wrong people have the wrong information at the wrong time.” One example is a surgery unit that Lumeon worked with on scheduling surgeries. The administrative staff scheduled the surgeries based on minimal contact with the clinicians–a common practice throughout the industry that might seem efficient. But unfortunately, people who are uninformed about the clinical aspects of the surgery make sub-optimal plans, directly leading to poorer outcomes. The administrative staff don’t use rooms and other resources effectively, and stumble over risks that the clinicians could have warned them about. Lumeon uncovered the problem during a single morning meeting with this particular hospital. By enabling the clinicians to better coordinate with the scheduling staff, the surgery unit more than doubled its presurgical screening capacity without asking for increased funding. I recently wrote about a controversy over patient loads that erupted into a major political controversy (rarely a formula for rational process engineering). Thus, when talking to Hughes, I...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Health Care Healthcare HealthCare IT Fee for Service Fee-For-Value Longitudinal Care Operations Management Optimization Patient Engagement Process Re-engineering Source Type: blogs