LAS VEGAS - As healthcare moves into a more globally connected environment and government programs, such as those from CMS determine what costs should be for providers, organizations must look toward non-labor needs to improve care outcomes and reduce costs, according to Mark Ziemianski, vice president, Business Analytics at Children's Health System of Texas.
"In the past, companies have always looked at labor first because it's easier when addressing cost reductions," Ziemianski said. But to make sure patients are efficiently served and reduce redundancies, services must be aligned to meet the patient's needs.
When it comes to improving quality, Pamela Arora, senior vice president, CIO at Children's Medical Center of Dallas said, "You get what you measure.
"When we look at serving our community, we have to aggressively manage our costs," she added. "But at the same time, we're looking at how our models work in the community."
And reducing costs doesn't necessarily mean cutting back. "It's a matter of figuring out where we need to re-channel resources," Arora said. "Quite frankly - high cost doesn't equal quality."
Children's Medical Center of Dallas is a nonprofit, academic healthcare institution in Dallas-Fort Worth, made up of two full-service hospitals and is the seventh-largest pediatric healthcare provider in the country.
Children's has been updating its care models over the past few years. Arora said they found analytics have improved patient care, by providing a visual to the community about quality and improvements.
Instead of focusing on spending and how to reduce redundancies, Arora said executives need to go to the staff on the front lines to ask about their needs. In doing so, it can empower the staff and make them more open to change.
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"What we're trying to do is increase value and reduce redundancies," Ziemianski said. "We're no longer just looking at what we've done well, we're looking at everything. We took all of our staff and brought everyone back to fundamental training to improve care."
"We saw real benefits on all accounts; including staff who could do their jobs better because they had more knowledge," he added.
Contributing to the successful cost reduction and its acceptance within the organization, Ziemianski said was making it easier for staff to track their performance using analytics tools designed and implemented by Children's.
Twitter: @JessiefDavis
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