Transforming Operational Efficiency
Live Oak Surgery Center uses HST Pathways to streamline processes and improve patient communication and transparency.
Improved patient satisfaction and operational efficiency were achieved, resulting in:
- Increased patient satisfaction scores
- Reduced bad debt and write-offs via enhanced revenue management
- Effective risk management
- Optimized block utilization
# of Centers: 1
# of ORs: 3
Featured Solutions: Patient Engagement, Surgery Center Management, Patient Estimates
Other Solutions in Use: Patient Engagement, Surgery Center Management, Patient Estimates
State: TX
Specialties: Multi-specialty
Customer type: ASC
The Challenge
Live Oak Surgery Center, established in 2018 and located in Plano, TX, is a multi-specialty facility jointly owned by Children’s Hospital (51%) and a group of physicians. Specializing in orthopedics, plastics, ENT, and gastroenterology, the center primarily serves pediatric patients while also catering to adults.
With a commitment to creating a comfortable and safe surgical environment, Live Oak Surgery Center takes pride in providing complete clinical and financial transparency. However, while they excelled clinically—ensuring patients knew what to expect and delivering high-quality care—they faced significant challenges in financial transparency. The SIS AdvantX platform, which the center was previously using, was not user-friendly, lacked sufficient information, and produced subpar reports. These limitations, coupled with difficulties in contacting patients, hindered their efforts in insurance verification, cost estimation, and patient communication.
As a result, patient experience scores were on the decline while bad debt and write-offs were on the rise. The center encountered many difficulties when it came to contacting patients, posing a significant challenge for their operations. They even considered adding an additional full-time employee to offset these challenges.
The Solution
Live Oak Surgery Center implemented a comprehensive solution by adopting HST’s patient estimates, scheduling & care communication, and patient texting & pre-assessments to streamline their financial and operational processes. HST’s patient estimates significantly enhanced patient financial counseling, enabling staff to provide more detailed and useful information, which in turn improved patient satisfaction and experience scores. The software’s efficient scheduling interface ensured that no cases were missed, offering real-time updates and eliminating the need for constant reverification. This increased operational efficiency allowed existing staff to focus on other essential tasks.
To address challenges in the nursing, preoperative, and postoperative stages, Live Oak Surgery Center integrated HST’s scheduling & care communication and HST’s patient engagement solution into their workflow. The online pre-assessment form and patient texting feature within HST’s patient engagement solution dramatically improved their ability to contact and communicate with patients, ensuring better patient care and streamlined processes.
The cohesive HST platform has been an invaluable asset to the facility, offering a wealth of essential information, including surgery duration, staff utilization, cost-revenue analysis, and infection control reports. HST’s surgery center management further simplified their operations by integrating the ASCA benchmarking report, making it easier to benchmark with ASCA and other facilities and streamlining data entry.
The abundance of information provided by HST has also made various tasks more manageable for their team. For instance, it has simplified the process of determining shift differentials by enabling the identification of nurses who have worked late. Additionally, it allows the center to closely monitor doctors’ scheduling blocks and ensure adherence to allocated time, providing valuable insights into OR block time utilization. Overall, the combined use of these HST products has significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of Live Oak Surgery Center’s operations.
HST Pathways offers you a comprehensive ASC platform, providing all the necessary information, data, and statistics you desire, all just at your fingertips. It’s really a great product.
Lora Reed
Administrative Director
The Results
The implementation of HST products has brought significant benefits to Live Oak Surgery Center, improving efficiency, revenue, and patient satisfaction. The system’s reports offer easily accessible, comprehensive data on quality metrics and performance, enabling informed decision-making.
The surgery time log has been crucial for optimizing block utilization, providing valuable feedback to physician offices on procedure durations, turnaround times, and effective scheduling. This has maximized operational efficiency.
HST’s products have also enhanced revenue growth by enabling accurate documentation, tracking of reimbursements, and identification of supply usage variations among surgeons. These insights have led to better cost management.
After adopting HST’s patient estimates, the center saw a marked improvement in patient satisfaction and experience scores, along with reduced bad debt, write-offs, and enhanced staff efficiency. These advancements have led to better financial transparency and an overall improved patient experience.
Additionally, the team found the implementation process itself was straightforward, with virtual setup and support provided by HST Pathways. The simplicity of HST Pathways’ products has garnered positive feedback from nurses, particularly in streamlining preoperative phone calls. HST’s patient engagement solution has proven to be extremely valuable for them with patient pre-assessments, enhancing the efficiency of data collection and analysis.
With HST Clariti running in the background, I know we are receiving the most current info without having to re-verify. Also, we have a schedule interface, which ensures no cases will get missed!
The Future
Looking ahead, Live Oak Surgery Center plans to continue leveraging the success of HST’s patient estimates to further enhance their financial transparency initiatives. The center aims to build on its achievements by exploring additional features within HST’s patient estimates to improve patient communication and operational efficiency.
Recognizing the untapped potential of HST Pathways’ systems, Live Oak Surgery Center is eager to unlock more capabilities in the near future. They are particularly interested in utilizing HST’s scheduling & care communication to optimize staffing, scheduling, and communication, envisioning streamlined processes and better resource allocation. Additionally, the center has plans to explore HST’s electronic charting, which would further elevate their operational capabilities.
The team remains confident that by fully harnessing the power of HST Pathways, they will continue to enhance efficiency, streamline processes, and achieve their long-term goals.