Fixing America, One Hospital at a Time: Real-Time Capacity Management

There seems to be growing consensus that we can’t fix America without fixing healthcare.

The most recent contribution to that litany comes from Princeton University Professor and former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder, who worked on budget and health care issues as a member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors.

Author of the new book, After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead, Blinder says the U.S. has “no chance to get the deficit under control” until it “significantly reduces health care spending,” which will eventually “swallow up everything.”

There is no want for ideas on how to do that. Scores of solutions are on the table, from Accountable Care Organizations to value-based payment incentives to healthcare “waste” removal.  The Affordable Care Act is full of them. The question is whether they will work.

That doesn’t mean we have to sit back and wait until the answers bubble to the surface. There are cost saving solutions which can be implemented immediately and start saving money and generating revenue at “go live.”

One of them is TeleTracking’s Real-Time Capacity Management  platform, which removes wasted time in hospitals more efficiently than ever by combining advanced patient flow software with business intelligence and real-time location technologies.  Real-Time Capacity Management creates a browser-based “operational backbone” which automates and optimizes daily tasks along the entire patient path and powers live feedback to the entire hospital. This in turn converts wasted time into usable space by sharply reducing the amount of time required to move patients along that path

RTCM is the latest breakthrough for TeleTracking, but we’ve been cutting waste out of healthcare for years and proving it. Consider this:

• Methodist Health System of San Antonio was able to add over $150 million to its bottom line in two and a half years by extracting wasted time from its multi-hospital operations through the automation of its capacity management process.

• Cleveland Clinic was able to forgo a multi-million dollar addition of operating suites by automating patient flow through its existing suites and increasing their utilization to an optimal level.

• University of Utah Healthcare saw $5,340,000 in annual net margin increase with the addition of 89 transfers per month after implementating TeleTracking’s TransferCenter™ application

What these providers have in common is using real-time automation to convert wasted time into usable space. From bed turns, to transport, to post-op to discharge, they have wrung idle time out of their operations. The result is greater efficiency, a reduction of chaos, and better planning that allows them to treat more patients. And they were able to begin saving time and money immediately after system “go-live.”

So, what is your hospital doing to save America?