How to achieve transformational change across your hospital — beginning with the lab: 4 lessons from North Memorial Health Care

When Bobbi Kochevar first joined Minneapolis-based North Memorial Health Care about a year and a half ago, she says the two-hospital system was "in the dark" about all the issues that surrounded their reference lab business.  In June 2012, the aggressive launch of four different IT systems, system limitations and clinic connectivity issues set North Memorial's lab on a bad path.

"When I came in, there was chaos happening in the lab," said Ms. Kochevar, director of diagnostic and therapy services at North Memorial. "We were losing business left and right. The communication with the stakeholders was a nightmare. Because we were so siloed, we knew we had problems everywhere, but we weren't able to coordinate the solutions."

Despite a perfect storm of challenges for the lab — from lack of stakeholder communication to capital constraints — North Memorial was able to implement several countermeasures to address the multitude of issues.  One solution, which promotes transparency and communication, came from healthcare cloud software company hc1.com.  Within weeks of utilizing the hc1 healthcare relationship management platform, the health system made "huge leaps and bounds," according to Ms. Kochevar.  

In a webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review on Aug. 20, Ms. Kochevar and hc1.com founder and CEO Brad Bostic discussed North Memorial's lab remarkable turnaround and offered the following four strategies for health systems looking to similarly increase efficiency and accountability.

1. Create a central intelligence hub to monitor accounts. hc1.com enables North Memorial lab staff to view detailed information about patient accounts, as well as access data on top accounts and drivers of business, using one central platform. For example, dashboard graphs display the average turnaround time for each account compared with the lab's benchmark, as well as orders and ordered panel volume over time. "We can see if our top clients are growing their business with us, or if it's declining," allowing the lab to predict future growth or head off negative trends, Ms. Kochevar said. 

2. Eliminate silos. When onboarding new clients, which involves many components and responsibilities, North Memorial lab staff have access to a task list report so they can see who's doing what and their progress, which builds accountability. "This was a huge game changer from our previously disjointed, paper process," Ms. Kochevar said. As a result, the hospital has increased client onboarding from one new account per month to one each week.

As the healthcare industry moves toward value-based payments, Mr. Bostic said, "It's critical to focus on strategies that facilitate closed-loop accountability across every department." 

3. Maintain ongoing performance metric visibility. North Memorial monitors key performance metrics such as turnaround time and volume over time. "This type of report supports decision-making as it relates to testing we might want to consider bringing in-house," Ms. Kochevar said. "It's also another indicator of the health of the account."

Keeping track of performance metrics and noting trends are vital to every business.  North Memorial Reference Lab partners with their clients to provide business insight through quality metric reports obtained through hc1.com.  These reports assist clients in making data-driven decisions about their ordering practices, therefore ensuring appropriate utilization. This partnership further drives value for clients beyond just providing them lab results.    

4. Optimize value by aligning departments. North Memorial's use of hc1.com creates transparency across departments.  Having the visibility to proactively manage issues through resolution and identify trends improves quality and enhances the customer service experience while optimizing internal efficiencies.  According to Ms. Kochevar: "This intelligence allows us to  staff appropriately and better utilize precious human resources." At the same time, clients benefit from North Memorial’s prompt and personalized service approach, which has led to increased retention. 

Download the webinar presentation slides here. 

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More articles on hospital labs:
How one hospital used EMRs to reduce Heparin administration errors
Lawmakers: Remove penalties for Medicare labs not using EHRs

Cape Cod Healthcare to cut 8 lab jobs 

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