Across hospitals and health systems, COOs remain focused on improving patient access.
As many organizations face growing demand and a need for additional capacity, they are implementing various strategies, including expanding their ambulatory networks and launching telehealth programs.
How have their efforts to track access — such as new dashboards and top operational key performance indicators— evolved in 2025?
At Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Hospitals, leaders monitor a range of dashboards — including those for operating room and infusion chair optimization — that incorporate thousands of data inputs to better assess capacity and access, according to COO Rowell Daniels, PharmD. The system recently launched dashboards that track performance against peer organizations.
“While we have always looked at length of stay for our inpatients, we recently created a few new dashboards that allow us to compare ourselves to peers and against our own health system’s annual organizational performance goals,” Dr. Daniels told Becker’s. “The insights gained from this type of data help us pinpoint what we can do to eliminate barriers for our care teams and ultimately help patients take the next medically appropriate step in their care journey.”
The dashboards can show specific unit-level performance and benchmarked performance for medical subspecialties and Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Groups, he added.
“AMCs always approach understanding performance with an eye toward our own uniqueness, so the ability to drill down to specific patient types and benchmark with peers is essential,” Dr. Daniels said.
At Orange, Calif.-based UCI Health, leaders have a “relentless focus” on time-based metrics that measure access, including time to acceptance, time to procedure, or time to see a physician, Senior Vice President and COO Nathan Shinagawa said.
“We can’t have inputs without strong outputs though when many of our hospitals are at unprecedented capacity,” Mr. Shinagawa told Becker’s. “Managing observed over expected length of stay remains the top priority for ensuring we are getting patients out timely and safely.”
The system has also prioritized bringing several access metrics into a single view.
“UCI Health utilizes Power BI dashboards that are integrated into our tiered huddle structure. It started with inpatient metrics, but it wasn’t enough,” Mr. Shinagawa said. “Today, our daily dashboards let us see ED, OR, patient experience, throughput and transfer center data all on one page. We worked hard to make it all on one view, because our teams must see the interconnectedness of these metrics. They aren’t independent, but instead rely on the others.”
One area on which UCI Health has recently focused is tracking weekend access.
“While we typically think of hospitals as a 24/7 operation, closer examination at any hospital will showcase a difference in operations, throughput, and access on the weekends,” Mr. Shinagawa said. “We have spent 2025 determined to change that. Every Monday, we now track metrics from the weekend on operating room cases and procedures with both GI and IR.”
UCI Health is also expanding its ambulatory footprint into evenings and weekends, with a key focus on imaging access.
“Healthcare needs are 24/7 and our operations, beyond just emergencies, should reflect that,” Mr. Shinagawa said.
