Project Profiles
| Scenario 1 | Scenario 2 |
| Scenario 3 | Scenario 4 |
Scenario 1
A community hospital asked Birchwood Consulting to work with
upper management to guide their facility planning efforts for a new ambulatory
and surgical center to include a new Women’s Center and Service
Line to be based in the facility.
Results
- Provided the data and analysis to determine the appropriate number and type of new surgical suites to include in the center to allow for growth but stay within financial feasibility.
- Recommended process changes and suggested facility layout options to streamline operations and make the services more patient- and family- friendly.
- Justified the immediate initiation of a women’s clinical testing service not previously offered. This quickly generated new revenue, increased access to a potentially life-saving service to local women, and increased referrals to other services in the Women’s Service Line and the larger organization.
- Provided operational plans for programs and services to be offered through the Women’s Center.
Impact
Client successfully opened the new facility
and has since expanded hours and service offerings to meet the increased
demand for care. The new facility helped this small hospital remain competitive
in a marketplace where many community hospitals are struggling to survive
independently.
Scenario 2
Client requested Birchwood’s assistance
in developing a medical staff development plan to identify medical and
surgical physician and mid-level practitioner needs for their defined
market given the current supply in the community and the competition
to serve the market.
Results
- Focused the medical staff and health system leadership on areas of need through logical presentation of data and analysis, rather than anecdotal information.
- Provided detailed analysis of how the medical needs of the community have changed over the past four years.
- Identified the impact of competing providers who have entered the market in the past four years.
- Recommended recruitment of additional medical staff, by specialty.
- Completed the planning process in a very short timeframe to meet the needs of the client’s larger strategic planning process.
Impact
Client is using the medical staff development
plan as the blue print for their practitioner recruitment initiatives
and as input into their health service program development. Ultimately,
this will help the organization remain competitive and improve service
to their market over the next three years.
Scenario 3
A 600-bed teaching hospital was experiencing
significant problems in registering inpatients and outpatients resulting
in loss of revenue, patient service issues, and staff inefficiencies.
Results
- Developed streamlined procedures for registering outpatients and inpatients.
- Identified organizational changes to support new processes.
- Created performance measures and management reports to help in managing the new processes.
- Developed new employee training materials for the new processes.
- Identified needed Information System improvements to improve the speed and accuracy of the registration process.
Impact
The new management for the Patient Access Department
had an operational plan to guide implementation of more efficient and
higher-quality processes to improve revenues and increase the satisfaction
of patients, staff and physicians.
Scenario 4
A mid-sized tertiary care hospital in a highly-competitive
healthcare marketplace was experiencing a significant backlog in the
accounts payable area resulting in inefficiencies in the materials management
function and vendor management issues.
Results
- Recommended more effective use of existing software to improve the productivity of the staff and monitor the accounts payable and associated materials management processes.
- Implemented key performance measures and productivity goals for the accounts payable department.
- Restructured the department and its relationship to materials management to improve the overall organizational effectiveness of the department.
Impact
The accounts payable department was able to
eliminate a backlog of work and provide more timely information for management
of accounts payable and vendor relationship management. This resulted
in reduced expense associated with the A/P function and improved satisfaction
of those involved in the process.
