There is a prevailing maxim in business: “What gets measured, gets improved.” To achieve operational excellence, care at home organizations are typically best served by understanding the all aspects of their business and constantly looking for ways to improve. Effective efficiency becomes imperative in an environment of shrinking reimbursements and rising costs. Fortunately, there are strategies and tactics that can streamline operations and leverage new technologies to drive success across an organization.
Learning these strategies was a key outcome during an educational session held during the 2023 Axxess Growth, Innovation and Leadership Experience, or AGILE. Bryan Wolfe, former CEO and Co-founder of Traditions Health, and Mark Sharp, a partner at FORVIS, shared insights on how care at home leaders can find success with new operational strategies and apply technology to better forecast their own future.
Why Data Matters
Data matters for several reasons including the fact that some of it is public and some of it affects reimbursement. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes certain operational metrics, such as star ratings, rehospitalizations and more for consumers to use to make informed decisions when they need care. Plus, CMS and MedPAC also use data providers submit to determine payment reforms and reimbursement rates.
Technology Enhances Operations and Outcomes
“We need to focus our attention on what is key in our organizations, and we need to hold our people accountable,” said Sharp.
Using technologies such as business intelligence dashboards can easily capture what is happening in an organization and find out which areas need to be improved. By monitoring the data coming in, Sharp and Wolfe argue, leaders can effectively manage their operations to deliver optimal patient outcomes.
“If you’re trying to achieve a desired result, you have to be strategic,” said Wolfe. “If you have good processes in place, good discipline in place in your organization, good people and good accountability in the organization, good KPIs in the organization, [technology is] going to enhance that and make it more efficient.”
Sharp and Wolfe laid out strategies for shifting from monitoring data to managing with it. When establishing key performance indicators (KPIs), integrate them throughout the entire organization. Look for data points that are most critical to success, which points provide the most information, and which provide the minimum amount of data needed for a decision. Tools such as Axxess’ new Revenue Risk Analyzer and Value-Based Purchasing Dashboard can provide important business intelligence. Those KPIs should then be used to hold people accountable. For example, in home health, the data specificity for value-based purchasing and key components from the proposed rule for revenue reductions to all determinants of payment. This enables organizations to obtain actionable insights with revenue risk, quality improvement and patient satisfaction.
Embrace Automation
“Technology shouldn’t be just providing baseline information to us. Ultimately it should be providing intelligence to us,” said Sharp.
One of the intelligent ways to use technology is through automation, especially from electronic medical records (EMR) software, such as Axxess’ complete suite of solutions. An efficient and effective EMR will include automation that supports timely orders management and has the kind of interoperability to connect to solutions that support operational excellence.
Wolfe closed with a quote from Microsoft founder Bill Gates: “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.”
With more than 250 attendees, more than 40 sponsors and countless connections made, AGILE 2023 was a massive success for everyone. Check out the recap video and register now for AGILE 2024, April 21-24 in Dallas.