Trade Article: Increasing Profitability...

Increasing Profitability with an OR Resource Management System

BY KIMBLE MARTIN (Texarkana Surgery Center) AND MICKEY LARKINS (Per-Se Technologies)

(excerpted copy) When group practices are asked to identify their business goals, the same three always top the list: a positive patient outcome for less cost, maximized reimbursement for services provided, and continued growth and profitability.

However, with Medicare outpatient payments predicted to rise by an average of 2.4 percent this year, and drugs and certain medical device payments to fall,1 profitability will become even harder to attain. Greater focus must be given to the only two ways to grow profitability: decrease costs and increase case load. Medical group organizations performing both simultaneously can increase profitability substantially.

Texarkana Surgery Center (TSC), a freestanding, multispecialty, surgical outpatient facility serving Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, is a good example of a health care organization attacking both fronts. Using an OR resource management system, the regional facility can track resources from staff to supplies and equipment to overhead, identify areas for cost containment, and increase case load, revenue, and profitability, while improving customer satisfaction.

Since opening in 1995, TSC has used an electronic system called ORSOS®2. When TSC re-analyzed needs and available products several years later, it found Per-Se Technologies’ ORSOS was still the best solution for their organization. Other systems lacked true computer-based perioperative charting and advanced inventory capabilities—and they couldn't provide the depth of data required.

With the help of this system, the Texarkana, Texas, facility addresses industry issues and challenges, including managed care and Medicare, federal and state compliance requirements, and medical error reduction. TSC also tackles internal issues such as using resources more cost-effectively, containing costs, streamlining processes, elevating efficiency and productivity, improving information accuracy and access, increasing case load and revenue, marketing for greater profitability, and satisfying physicians, nurses, and patients. TSC reaps its biggest benefits in areas such as inventory scheduling, perioperative charting, cost reporting, physician satisfaction and patient care.

Improving the Bottom Line, Satisfying Customers

Last year, TSC reduced on-shelf inventory by 11 percent and increased case load by 11 percent, thereby contributing to a 14 percent revenue increase. This is quite substantial for ambulatory surgery centers.

In the process, it earned high ratings from the Center's two primary customers: patients and physicians. According to a recent survey, 99 percent of patients were satisfied with overall processes. Physicians rated room turnover satisfaction at 92 percent; equipment and resource availability at 91 percent; and overall processes at 94 percent. Seventy-one percent said time/day availability and the scheduling process make it easier to book at TSC—despite a 31 percent increase in physician staff in the past two years.

Flexible Technology for the Future

Running on industry-standard platforms including Oracle® and Microsoft® SQL, ORSOS offers what TSC needs to operate smoothly in a changing and complex business environment: flexibility, scalability, reliability, and around-the-clock customer support. Using existing equipment, TSC finds the system easy to use and maintain by resource-stretched staff.

TSC accomplishes its objectives through inventory, cost reporting, scheduling, and perioperative charting modules. Taking the place of multiple system investments, the system manages the complete operation of procedures plus delivers information unavailable anywhere else for operations and management decisions.

The Center points out that every organization runs practices differently—and that the system can be customized to capture information needed or required. TSC created protocols and checklists which it wants issued whenever defined humanistic, financial, or clinical situations occur. An alert could be issued to verify additional information or specific protocol for given procedures.

TSC relies on scheduling and perioperative charting to control inventory and for other types of resource management to achieve efficient time utilization and cost-effective management of all resources. Following a case through this facility helps illustrate this. Automated scheduling begins the process of capturing charges and managing time and inventory usage per patient…

Online Documentation

The resource management system provides a complete, accurate way for staff members at each point in the patient cycle to instantly see what has been done; to enter legible, legal documentation as the patient moves through the facility; and to help ensure the right patient receives the right procedure at the right site. Online perioperative documentation, recommended by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), helps reduce redundant questions and errors. Every staff member can access everything—allergies, vitals, etc.—anytime.

Patients receive the greatest benefits in areas of error reduction, care continuity, and streamlined process…

Continuing to Improve Profitability

TSC states that its profitability and operational gains by far outweigh its upfront preparation and investment. The resource management system allows staff to view practices statistically to continuously make a wide range of both major and minor changes for maximizing growth and revenue.

With the help of its comprehensive surgical scheduling and resource management system, Texarkana Surgery Center is effectively managing inventory, reducing costs, increasing revenue, and continuing to improve profitability each year—all while providing physicians the services they need and patients the high-quality healthcare they deserve.