Increasing Case Volume and Improving Collections

The Challenge

The traditional surgery coordination process at Crown Point Surgery Center, an ASC located in Parker, Colorado, was a fragmented system of emails, texts, phone calls, and whiteboards. This disjointed communication led to inefficiencies and frequent miscommunications amongst staff and patients alike. Staff members, including nurses, office staff, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and vendor representatives, faced challenges coordinating patient documents, equipment needs, and staff schedules. These issues resulted in time-consuming disruptions and added stress, particularly during end-of-day case additions.

The communication process in an ASC is relentless. When the scheduling coordinator at Crown Point Surgery Center, Amy Ishmael, was interviewed she stated, “Before the implementation of HST’s scheduling & care communication, the end of the day add-on was such a dreaded occurrence due to the time it would take to communicate and numerous steps that were involved. This interruption would typically take me away from what I was doing for at least a solid 45 minutes, and with our outdated process, it was so easy to miss a step and then have a mess to clean up the following day.”

The Solution

In the final week of August 2015, the HST’s scheduling & care communication suite was launched. The whiteboards were replaced with 50 inch digital surgery boards linked to HST’s scheduling & care communication, which in real-time reflects all case updates made by the scheduler and other authorized participants in the surgery process. The paper case add-on sheets were stopped, along with the need for individual text messages and emails historically sent between ASC team members.

Just six months later, Amy Ishmael, the surgery scheduler stated, “I would never want to go back to coordinating a surgery without the assistance of HST Case Coordination.” A 5pm case-add that would have required overtime and 45 minutes is now accomplished in five minutes. Other benefits include:

• Reduced scheduling errors: HST’s scheduling & care communication creates a central hub for sharing case updates between all surgery participants, both internal and external. This reduces communication drops and other coordination errors from information loss caused by fragmented phone, text, and email.
• Decreased staff distractions: Information isn’t lost through the inefficient transfer process of calls, texts, and email.
• Improved Patient Experience: More informed and efficient staff can provide better care to patients and better information to family members. The Digital Surgery Boards enable key people to follow the care process from check-in to discharge with decreased distractions from overhead pages and inter-department phone calls.

There have been concrete time savings achieved from this enhanced surgery coordination process. A single click to update a case now instantly notifies the entire case team of the change. Crown Point decided to try and break down the change in communication points and the time involved, and the results were outstanding.

The Results

The adoption of HST’s scheduling & care communication significantly improved the ASC’s efficiency. The time required to coordinate a single case was reduced from 21 minutes to 5 minutes, and rescheduling time dropped from 10 minutes to just 1 minute. The facility saved approximately 205 hours per month, including 82 hours for front office staff and 123 hours for nursing staff. This reduction in communication touchpoints led to a more focused and productive staff, enhancing the overall patient experience.

The Future

The ASC plans to continue leveraging HST’s scheduling & care communication to maintain high efficiency and further improve patient care. The success of this implementation has solidified the ASC’s commitment to using advanced technology to enhance their operations and minimize staff workload. The facility looks forward to exploring additional features and potential expansions of the platform.