2009 National Survey on the Impact of Technology in Healthcare Reform

StatCom’s 2009 National Survey on the Impact of Technology in Healthcare Reform was designed to determine how current economic conditions and the healthcare reform discussion are impacting hospitals’ IT purchasing decisions, especially patient flow logistics software and technology.

Among the 440 U.S. healthcare executives surveyed, 74 percent believe the U.S. healthcare system is in a “state of crisis,” and are concerned that healthcare reform legislation may negatively impact the quality of care and decrease their profit margins. Eighty-six percent of healthcare executives say improving productivity and efficiency is their primary strategy to accommodate future patient demand. The survey also showed that 69 percent of executives plan to invest in improving their technology during 2010.

An Unhealthy State

Although the majority of healthcare executives believe the U.S. healthcare system is in a state of crisis, many don’t see healthcare reform legislation as the answer. Only half of the respondents stated that it is important for Congress to enact some kind of healthcare reform legislation. Yet, many (45 percent) believe that the quality of care will get worse with the passage of healthcare reform legislation.

When asked if they believe the American healthcare system is in a state of crisis, healthcare executives responded:

When asked how healthcare reform legislation will impact the quality of care, respondents said:

When asked if healthcare reform with a public option would impact their hospital’s margins? Healthcare executives said:

StronglyAgree

Neither agree nor disagreeDisagree

StronglyDisagree

GetBetter

Stay about the same

Not Sure

No

Yes, Margins will increase

Not Sure

Communication, Communication, Communication

Poor communication is the biggest cause of poor

patient flow in U.S. hospitals, according to the majority

of healthcare executives who responded to the survey.

Sixty-four percent of respondents stated that inadequate

communication causes poor patient flow in their facilities.

Another root cause of poor patient flow is physician

rounding patterns according to 60 percent of the

healthcare executives. Other causes of poor patient

flow include:

Ineffective scheduling of activities and resources

(34 percent) Poor centralized knowledge about the location and

status of each patient (31 percent) Lengthy admissions process (25 percent) Lack of staff to help facilitate patient flow (23 percent) Lack of beds (21 percent)

Room for Improvement

Despite the recent discussions around automation in

healthcare facilities as a way to reduce costly errors

and improve patient care, U.S. hospitals still face

challenges when trying to improve patient flow. The

majority indicated that the key challenges include

budget constraints, resistance to change, and sustaining

improvements. In spite of the sustainability issue, process

improvement remains the number one strategy of hospital

executives for accommodating future patient demand.

Getting Results?

Ninety-three percent of healthcare executives responded

they are relying on case management to manage length-

of-stay (LOS) in their facilities, and 63 percent are also

using process improvement efforts to improve LOS. In

answer to the question “which solution has the most

potential to improve patient throughput at your facility,”

68 percent of respondents indicated a patient flow and

logistics solution.

Yet, in response to the question “what technologies

are likely to get attention and budget approval in your

hospital in 2010,” 71 percent of executive respondents

indicated electronic medical records (EMR), and 53%

indicated CPOE. The good news is that, 31% responded

that patient flow and logistic solutions would get attention

and budget approval. The question is why more hospitals

are not responding to their LOS issues with a patient flow

and logistics solution.

According to a recent study conducted by Ashish K.

Jha, MD, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of

Public Health, and Catherine DesRoches of Massachusetts

General Hospital, a new federally funded U.S. effort to

implement electronic medical records in physicians’

offices and hospitals throughout the nation, is not likely to

generate care improvements and quickly lower costs.

Until recently, measurements of how EMRs impact care

and healthcare costs have focused on the results seen at

high-performing healthcare providers like the Mayo Clinic,

which have spent years refining their systems. Those

2009 National Survey on the Impact of Technology in Healthcare Reform2

Perfecting the Process

Improving technology takes a back seat to improving process e�ciency as the main strategy for accommodating future patient demand. In that arena, hospital executives are planning to take the following steps:

Improve process/efficiency

Expand facilities

Hire more nursing staff

Hire more administrative staff

Improve technology

hospitals currently adopting EMRs will see a negligible

difference in care quality and cost. For instance, in terms

of heart failure, hospitals with advanced EMRs met best-

practice standards nearly 88 percent of the time, but

those without EMRs met those same standards nearly 86

percent of the time.

“The findings from StatCom’s 2009 survey demonstrate

that despite increasing efforts to apply technology to help

make hospitals more efficient, most healthcare facilities

still rely on manual processes to reduce LOS and improve

patient flow and throughput,” said Karl Straub, president

of StatCom.

“While EMRs and CPOE can improve care documentation

and reduce errors in the healthcare environment, the

industry still has a long way to go in realizing the potential

of integrated patient flow and logistics solutions in

helping manage operational efficiency.”

The Good News

Even in the midst of a challenging economic environment,

most hospitals plan to increase IT budgets in 2010,

according to the survey results.

“In an era where healthcare facilities are closely

monitoring their expenditures, an increase in IT budgets,

if focused on solutions that can deliver improved patient

throughput and productivity will have a positive impact

on the healthcare industry,” Straub said.

The strident debate on healthcare reform legislation

demonstrates the wide range of opinions on how best to

reign in healthcare costs and improve access challenges

while continuing to advance patient safety and quality.

“The U.S. healthcare system is not immune to the

economic challenges facing corporate America. In fact,

in many ways they have been hit even harder,” said

Ben Sawyer, executive vice president of StatCom. “In

the coming months, we will likely see more movement

from hospital executives to adopt technologies, such as

a hospital operating system, as a way to improve their

bottom lines and the overall patient experience.”

32009 National Survey on the Impact of Technology in Healthcare Reform

Where’s the ROI?

Sixty-two percent of healthcare executives are delaying capital projects in 2010, but IT budgets are expected to increase.

With the increased IT budgets, healthcare executives are focusing their attention on three main technologies in the coming year. When asked, what technologies are likely to get attention and budget approval in your hospital in 2010:

Electronic medical records

Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)

Patient Flow & Logistics

4

About StatCom Through process re-engineering and enabling software, StatCom’s Hospital Operating System™ helps hospitals transform their operations to deliver efficient patient throughput, reduced ALOS, and improved physician, patient and staff satisfaction. The key objective is to achieve operational efficiency across all hospital departments simultaneously. Actions across the hospital are prioritized, allowing patients to flow at their best possible rate with respect to service, quality, safety and resource consumption.

StatCom (www.statcom.com) is a subsidiary of Jackson Healthcare®, a group of companies focused on providing the healthcare industry with innovative people resources and IT solutions. For more information contact StatCom at 800.930.0870 or info@statcom.com.

2009 National Survey on the Impact of Technology in Healthcare Reform

The 2009 National Survey on the Impact of Technology

in Healthcare Reform was conducted in November, 2009.

Of the 440 U.S. healthcare executives who completed the

survey, more than half (54 percent) were CEOs, COOs, CFOs,

CNOs, CMOs or CIOs and 18 percent held roles as directors.

The survey was sponsored by StatCom.

Bed Availability? – Look Who’s Talking

While there’s long been a rallying cry for hospitals to automate manual processes as a way to improve efficiency and reduce errors in their facilities, the survey findings show that manual processes are still commonplace throughout hospitals – especially in the area of managing patient throughput.

Phone calls and voice messages are the primary methods for communicating bed assignment and patient tracking to nursing staff and, even today, more than half of the facilities do not use bed management software or technology.

Does your facility use bed management software/technology?

How is patient tracking/bed assignment information made available to nursing staff?

What kind of processes does your facility use to determine bed availability?

Phone calls and voice messages

Unit White Boards

Admission Discharge Transfer (ADT) systems

Manual processes, (phone calls, pagers,

e-mails, bed check)

Midnight census

Departmental reporting

Bed huddles