2013/3/5 - GE Healthcare Survey Reveals Many Healthcare Organizations Not Prepared for Capacity Management Challenges

A primary cause may be the lack of data, tools, and an integrated approach to tracking utilization across the hospital that would enable leaders at these organizations to develop capacity management strategies at the enterprise level.

Karen Myers, chief nursing officer of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston explains that placing a greater emphasis on data has helped St. Luke’s to deliver higher quality care more efficiently. “To get the real picture of capacity needs, healthcare organizations need to move from a qualitative approach to a quantitative one that leverages real-time, objective data to assess our ability to deliver care efficiently.”

The survey, sponsored by GE Healthcare Performance Solutions, collected responses from members of the HealthLeaders Media Council, a group of 166 top U.S. healthcare executives.Itasked respondents to evaluate their organizations’ ability to manage capacity with respect to strategic planning, bed management, discharge processes, OR scheduling, and facility expansion or renovation.

The survey results reveal widespread uncertainty and often conflicting viewpoints, as healthcare organizations work to ensure they use their space and resources efficiently, while ensuring that patients have timely access to beds and required care.

Key highlights:

• Congested and getting worse: 54 percent of respondents indicated that existing patient flow already feels congested and they expect their organizations to continue to grow. Further, 66 percent cited their discharge processes as inefficient.
  
  “No matter how reform plays out in terms of patient volume, the hospitals that thrive will be those that are working today to make the best use of their resources,” says Helen Stewart, managing principal of GE Healthcare Performance Solutions U.S. and Canada. “If your operational cost structure is efficient, you can grow to meet additional demand or shrink your footprint to weather a downturn. The converse is not true. More patients or fewer patients, an inefficient organization is still going to lose money and have patients experience issues. There is no good scenario for inefficiency.”

• Uncertain about the future: Nearly 60 percent of the healthcare leaders surveyed reported having evaluated and planned for multiple future scenarios, including the impact of healthcare reform, changes in demand, and other external factors. Yet, only 35 percent acknowledge they will be able to predict their capacity needs in short and long term, or that they will be able to match capacity with demand.
• Confusion in the Operating Room. 62 percent of leaders surveyed said they cannot quantify the impact of surgeries on patient flow through the rest of the hospital on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis. These leaders were split evenly (50/50) when asked whether or not their surgeons had trouble finding time on the operating room (OR) schedule. This data suggests that many organizations are not focusing on key high volume and high impact care areas where volume can be controlled, such as elective surgeries in the OR.
• Technology without process. 57 percent of respondents report having an effective bed management system. However, the same percentage said they lack an effective bed turnover process. This data may suggest the need for an integrated approach to bed management systems, including the use of new software solutions to optimize the process. Stewart explains, “The system can’t just put patients in beds. It has to connect all departments involved in room turnover—transport, housekeeping, patient tracking—and enable them to be more efficient in delivering operational care.”

The survey results highlight the challenges faced by healthcare leaders as they shift from managing capacity discretely at the department level, to creating and managing processes at the enterprise level. It also reveals the challenges that leaders face when creating an efficient operational cost structure that allows for flexibility in a rapidly changing supply-and-demand environment.

Myers explains, “The hospital is a complex organism. We can now draw data from multiple information sources and make nonlinear references between seemingly disparate areas of the organization to better manage capacity today and in the future.”

Stewart adds, “Most organizations expect to improve their operations and patient flow to accommodate a higher throughput of patients, but are being limited by widespread lack of interconnected data to inform them of how they are operating at a holistic level. That’s where congestion problems lie, beds are sitting empty and patients are facing long wait times. Though most hospitals collect patient flow data at the department level, few have mechanisms to share and pool it for hospital executives to evaluate and plan for future scenarios. Collecting capacity management data to analyze performance across the entire care continuum is critical to hospitals’ ability to care for growing numbers of patients in fewer steps and reduce unnecessary operational costs.”

The business announced the survey results from the floor of the annual HIMSS conference in New Orleans this week. For additional information regarding the survey and its findings, please visit the HealthLeaders website.

GE Healthcare Performance Solutions works with hospitals and health systems around the world to improve operational performance. With its combination of advisory services, technology, governance strategies and world-recognized GE management and operations methodologies, Performance Solutions helps hospitals identify and reduce unnecessary waste, unintended clinical variation and fragmented care delivery while delivering cost savings and improving the quality of patient care.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter - great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients.

About HealthLeaders Media

HealthLeaders Media, a division of HCPro, is a leading multi-platform media company dedicated to meeting the business information needs of healthcare executives and professionals. As an integrated media company, HealthLeaders Media consists of the following entities: HealthLeaders magazine, HealthLeaders Media Online, HealthLeaders Media Rounds, HealthLeaders Media Breakthroughs, the HealthLeaders Media Intelligence Unit, and California HealthFax. All are available on the Web at www.healthleadersmedia.com.

GE Healthcare
Corey Miller, 414-469-5499
corey.miller@ge.com