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  1. 26

    Jul

    Preparing for the Future: The Value of Integrating Physician Practice Data

  2. 20

    Sep

    Fast Track Financial Wins Today Create Clinical Stability for the Future

  3. 15

    Nov

    Promote Patient Safety and Efficiency with Real Time Clinical Intelligence

  4. 24

    Jan

    Value Based Purchasing: Getting Ahead of Pay for Performance


  5. 14

    Mar

    Leveraging Enterprise Intelligence to Manage Readmissions


Care Coordination

Improving the Patient Experience with Optimal Care Coordination

When care is well coordinated throughout the enterprise, patients get the services and treatment that they need in time. The result: Patients experience better outcomes and the healthcare organization experiences bottom-line success. The problem: In many organizations, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing — and duplicate tests and delayed treatments are the norm.

In a recent study, researchers at Thomson Reuters found that $700 billion is wasted each year on systemic inefficiencies such as unnecessary treatments, redundant tests, and a lack of coordination between providers, as well as outright fraud. If nothing changes, U.S. health care expenditures will reach $4.8 trillion in a decade – or 19.7% of GDP – with $1.6 trillion of that money doing nothing to contribute to better health.

Care Coordination Success Story: Lehigh Valley Hospital

Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, a 730-bed hospital in Allentown, Pa., was struggling to meet the demand for clinical services. To solve the problem, leaders needed an accurate picture of the patient experience. The enterprise intelligence system was used to integrate and analyze information from its ED, surgery, bed tracking, orders, severity, ADT, and billing systems.

By linking granular clinical data to the detailed financial data, Lehigh Valley examined not only the duration and frequency of clinical events but also the costs associated with those events down to the individual patient level. Armed with this information, the hospital initiated more than 50 interventions across all three campuses. A near real-time results dashboard enabled leaders to proactively monitor results and make decisions to improve processes.

Through these performance improvement initiatives, Lehigh Valley reduced:

  • Ambulance diversions by more than 80%
  • ED wait times by 23.5%
  • Bed turnaround time from an average of 210 minutes per bed to an average of just 60 minutes per bed

Read more about Lehigh Valley's success story.