Improve Patient Flow With Analytics

1. Case Study
Lehigh Valley Hospital
and Health Network
At a Glance
Uses Analytics to Grow Capacity
Organization
and Improve Patient Flow
Lehigh Valley Hospital When Lehigh Valley Hospital and Overwhelmingly, the ideas
and Health Network Health Network, in Allentown, Pa., focused on work processes
Allentown, Pa. was not meeting its capacity goals, and patient throughput.
– 4th largest cancer program significant process changes were
in Pennsylvania necessary. By employing analytics Answers
– Nationally ranked regional in a healthcare performance To evaluate the success of these
heart center management solution from process changes for the capacity
McKesson, Lehigh Valley found project, Lehigh Valley turned to
– Major teaching facility of the right combination of process
Pennsylvania State University McKesson Performance AnalyticsTM,
improvements that would increase McKesson’s healthcare performance
Hershey Medical Center hospital and ED (emergency management solution suite.
– Level 1 Trauma Center department) virtual capacity The health network used the
– Beds: 730 by decreasing hospital and solution to integrate and analyze
ED length of stay. As a result, information from its ED, surgery,
– Medical staff: 1,200 (more the health network reduced
than 1,000 board-certified), bed tracking, orders, severity,
ambulance diversion, bed transfer, ADT and billing systems.
representing 50+ specialties turnaround time and ED wait Using time-stamped activity data,
– Inpatient visits per year: 42,000 times, while boosting admissions. the organization determined
– ED visits per year: 100,000 how long a patient waited to be
Challenges triaged, registered, admitted to
Solution Spotlight Lehigh Valley was faced with an emergency bed, treated by the
increased demand for services and physician, and discharged either
– McKesson Performance an inability to manage its capacity. to the home or to hospital care.
AnalyticsTM Operating rooms were put
on hold, and transfer patients By linking granular clinical data
Critical Issues were being turned away — to the detailed financial data,
– Rising patient demand yet admissions were below Lehigh Valley examined not only the
for emergency services the health system’s goal. duration and sequence of clinical
events but also the costs associated
– High rate of ambulance Recognizing the systemic nature with those events down to the
diversions of the problem, executives at individual patient level. In addition,
– Long inpatient bed turnaround Lehigh Valley sought to identify Lehigh Valley examined other
throughput inefficiencies to find sources of lost business, such as
ways to expand capacity. During hours on ED divert status, the
Results a management retreat, managers number of patients leaving without
– Met capacity demands despite were challenged to generate ideas being seen, transfer center denials
growth to help solve the organization’s and operating room holds.
– Reduced ambulance diversions capacity problems. A newly
by more than 80% formed capacity task force Armed with integrated care delivery
formulated and prioritized information, Lehigh Valley initiated
– Reduced ED wait times by more than 1,000 ideas to address more than 50 interventions across
23.5% the capacity issues. all three campuses. To monitor
– Reduced bed turnaround time
from an average of 210 minutes
per bed to an average of
60 minutes per bed

2. Case Study
“McKesson Performance progress, the health network “Using analytics, we are able to drill
created a capacity scorecard down to discharge orders placed
Analytics helps us turn data using the customizable business before 11 a.m., between 11 a.m.
into actionable information to intelligence system in McKesson and 2 p.m., and after 2 p.m.”
Performance Analytics to provide
define the problems, develop easy, secure and timely access to The network can also drill down to
financial, clinical and operational see discharge orders by physician,
the solution and monitor information, as well as role-based physician group and hospital site.
the solution’s effectiveness.” dashboards. The scorecard includes “We use that information to
indicators for volume, length of provide resources to physicians
stay, ED patient flow/demand, to meet the goal of discharging
operating room (OR) holds in patients before 11 a.m. so that
David Richardson, MD, FACEP minutes, transfer center acceptance the bed can be freed for the next
Associate Vice-Chair rates, bed turnaround times and admission,” explains Dr. Richardson.
discharges before 11 a.m. “McKesson Performance Analytics
Department of Emergency helps us turn data into actionable
Results information to define the problems,
Medicine develop the solution and monitor
The capacity project allowed
Lehigh Valley Hospital Lehigh Valley to meet the the solution’s effectiveness.”
community’s need for services
and Health Network despite unprecedented annual According to Courtney Vose, RN,
growth rates of 6.2% and 5.3% director of emergency services,
over two years. By implementing having easy access to evidence-
process improvements driven based performance data allows
by clinical and financial data, the emergency department to
Lehigh Valley reduced ambulance objectively examine its processes
diversions by more than 80%, and flexibly adjust to changing
reduced ED wait times by 23.5%, needs. “I am able to drill down
and reduced bed turnaround time to the exact time of day or
from an average of 210 minutes exact patient population where
per bed to an average of 60 minutes throughput times were slow or
per bed. ideal,” says Vose. “This information
helps us to adjust staffing needs,
“The goal is to discharge patients re-educate the staff about processes
within two hours of the discharge put into place, and to plan for
order,” explains David Richardson, the future.”
MD, FACEP, associate vice-chair,
Department of Emergency Medicine.
McKesson Provider Technologies
Copyright © 2009 McKesson Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. McKesson
5995 Windward Parkway Performance Analytics is a trademark of McKesson Information Solutions LLC. All other product or company
Alpharetta, GA 30005 names mentioned may be trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
PRT219-02/09
http://www.mckesson.com
1.800.981.8601