Leveraging Data Analytics, Clinical Intelligence to Bolster Perioperative Care

September 20, 2022 - Healthcare organizations are continually looking for ways to improve efficiency and optimize workflows without burdening staff or patients. However, with staffing and resource shortages plaguing health systems since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, enhancing operations and care can seem like an unattainable goal.

Perioperative care, that is, the care provided before, during, and after surgery, is one area where enhanced workflows have the potential to dramatically improve outcomes. According to Jane Peck, COO and vice president of service lines at Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, the health system is one of many facing challenges in improving operational efficiency. But hospital leaders are overcoming these using a combination of data analytics and clinical intelligence to boost perioperative care.

“We needed to optimize existing resources while simultaneously reducing staff workload, particularly manual tasks. We needed to be able to do more with less,” Peck told HealthITAnalytics in an interview. “In addition, we operate in a highly competitive market with non-profit as well as for-profit operators, so we needed an approach that would give us a new strategic advantage given these dynamics.”

THE NEED FOR NEW TECHNOLOGY

Saint Luke’s was seeing a growing demand for surgical services and a need to increase surgical revenue while dealing with staffing and resource shortages, alongside growing frustration among its surgeons, who wanted more operating room (OR) time. They helped highlight how much OR time was going unused.

Leveraging data analytics and intelligent automation was a potential solution, but past experiences had made staff wary of new technologies promising big results.

The hospital began working with care operations company Qventus in the early phases of the pandemic to support systemwide planning for COVID-19. The successful collaboration led the health system to expand the partnership across its network.

“We were not in a position to add additional resources to solve the problem. We needed new enterprise automation capabilities, a system that could integrate with our EHR, leverage real-time data, and drive action. This need led us to our work with Qventus, which has a real-time automation platform that integrates with our EHR and software solutions that help us address key operational challenges, such as in our perioperative settings,” Peck said.

Prior to implementing the new data analytics and automation offerings, Saint Luke’s had maxed out its EHR’s capabilities for increasing operational efficiency, leading to a heavy reliance on manual processes and tools. This caused strain on the staff, Peck said. However, getting the staff on board with relying on new automated tools took some effort.

“After being disappointed so many times by new technology that didn’t deliver the promised results, there was a certain amount of skepticism on the part of staff and clinicians,” she stated. “However, once our teams and surgeons and their offices saw how it made their lives easier, they got over their doubts and embraced the system.”

THE BENEFITS OF CLINICAL INTELLIGENCE  

The Qventus Perioperative Platform is now a key part of the hospital’s perioperative services growth strategy.

During the pandemic, the hospital’s goals for perioperative care have been focused on addressing the backlog of surgical demand without burdening staff or increasing costs. To achieve this, the hospital has used the platform to automate processes that, when done manually, require staff members to have enough time and display initiative, as they may have to conduct outreach to offer OR time.

In addition to automating aspects of these processes, the platform allows hospital leaders to address issues such as unused OR time and surgical robot usage. According to Peck, the platform utilizes machine learning to predict OR times that are unlikely to be used. It then prompts surgeons and their schedulers to release the time earlier. In doing so, Peck noted, already staffed OR time doesn’t go unused as the time is released far enough in advance.

“Many of our surgeons are excited that Qventus helps get them time beyond their block, which ensures their patients have more timely access to surgical care,” she stated.

Of course, any technology or solution in this area is only as good as the outcomes it produces. To assess the success of its perioperative care initiative, Saint Luke’s analyzes data related to how OR resources are utilized, such as surgical cases, procedures logs, OR open times and usage, scheduling accuracy, on-time starts, turnover times, surgeon performance, and patient satisfaction.

Positive changes in these metrics, such as increased on-time starts and decreased unused OR time, allow health system leaders to gain real-time insights into OR use across the hospital. This enables them to allocate resources more efficiently, along with seeing what services and surgeons may need additional attention, according to Peck.

Since transitioning to a clinical intelligence platform for perioperative care, Saint Luke’s has seen notable results.

“We’ve seen significant improvements in OR access, increased staff satisfaction, and we are meeting [or] had certain amounts exceeding our budgeted volumes, despite staffing headwinds that we’re facing and reduced OR rooms,” Peck said. “In fact, we’ve been able to do 7 percent more surgical cases despite having to close 20 percent of our ORs at times. We've also seen an increase in our block release lead time, which has significantly helped us grow our case volume.”

In its first year after transitioning, Peck noted that the hospital experienced over 700 hours of OR block time released early, with 45 percent utilization of that released time. In addition, the health system saw an eight-plus day increase in OR block release lead time in advance of the default auto-release. Overall, over 1,200 OR cases were booked in the first year of using the new platform.

“[Automation] lets our perioperative services operate at peak efficiency and in a way that is more aligned with our strategic goals, which means increased revenue, a greater utilization of existing resources — all with less of a burden on our teams,” Peck stated.

In the future, the health system plans to continue utilizing its clinical intelligence capabilities to further improve perioperative care.

“Going forward, as a regional destination for tertiary and quaternary care, we want to continue to provide the best possible surgical care for our patients, continue to make our perioperative services more efficient, and allow our team members to work at the top of their licenses by freeing them from as many manual tasks as possible,” Peck said.