Start your change with an action plan
By Karen Jorge
A big “congratulations” to St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, N.H., is in order. Over the past few weeks, as part of their work to realize some of the opportunity found during the HMC benchmarking process, their managers and directors have created more than 50 action plans!
While this number is impressive for a small-to-medium size facility, the content of the plans is even more attention-worthy. The creators of these action plans did their homework with the Functional and Clinical benchmarks. They identified the potential opportunity within the functions or service lines for which they are responsible, and developed hypotheses for the major drivers of the excess. They also identified the steps to take (along with timelines) to reduce these expenses. We’ll be rooting for them as they move forward to implement their plans in the coming months.
So how can other facilities use action plans to help turn a benchmark report into cost savings? Action plans are a great place to start, and provide structure for figuring out next steps. Of our action plan templates available for use and adaptation, some focus on hypothesis generation – figuring out what is responsible for excess in a particular area. Others are more concrete, delineating actions to be taken and assigning dollar amounts to be achieved within a set timeline. As a general guide, here are some suggestions to consider when developing action plans:
1. Identify key players. Change is easier using a team approach. Determining who will be spearheading the initiative, as well as who else should part of the process, is an important part of creating and implementing a successful plan.
2. Pinpoint the opportunity. This could be the total excess for a particular function or DRG. All of it may not be actionable, but knowing the entire dollar amount that is out there will aid in determining what is achievable. Breaking it down further to see what part of the opportunity is made up of labor and what part is non-labor will reveal what action initiatives you should focus on.
3. Hypothesize key drivers. Using the department profiles and the KnowledgeWeb can help you determine the root causes of the opportunity. Our surveys, iConferences, Successes & Good Ideas (SGIs), and document library have relevant information. If you need more information, just let us know! At this point in the process, it is also a good idea to figure out why you believe your hypothesis to be true, as well as what could be done to substantiate it.
4. Establish a timeline. Perhaps senior management has given a deadline for achieving opportunity. If not, it’s beneficial to determine an endpoint for completing plan implementation, as well as intermediate dates for accomplishing steps along the way.
5. Track progress. Keeping tabs on your progress, either through a dashboard or by another method, will show what has been accomplished and what is still on the table. If this dashboard (or other tracking mechanism) is shared with others, it will also serve as a means for accountability. In addition to endpoint goals (e.g., lowered expenses or elimination of agency use), there may be other important metrics to track – including quality, patient satisfaction, and revenue – to evaluate the broader impacts of implementation.
Karen Jorge is an HMC analyst.
