Keys to Process Improvement

From that screen, Demko said, team members can actually click into a "fallout core measures report, so we can trend and understand the root causes of problems."

Some examples of success (whether by increasing revenue or reducing waste) include: case weight mix and coding, $1.2 million; ED cash collections, $1.1 million; administrative denials, $1.4 million. In all, over six years of work, the effort has delivered $81.2 million in ROI.

The biggest recent project involves process re-engineering on a blank slate, with a new 368-bed replacement hospital and ambulatory center, said Gandhi.
The question, he said, was "how do you use facility design to bring about cultural and process improvement transformation? Much of this can be built into the building."

For example, in the old facility, a typical nurse walked the equivalent of the distance from Philadelphia to Atlanta annually. That represents a lot of time away from the bedside, says Gandhi.

"More time at the bedside means better patient and employee satisfaction and better quality" he says. "Evidence shows this. We designed the facility around our processes."

This article appears in the January 2012 issue of HealthLeaders magazine.