A clinical assessment addresses the broad gamut of clinical, financial and operational challenges that surgery centers face today.
In particular, a clinical assessment can help your surgery center 1) enhance patient satisfaction; 2) uncover real savings opportunities; 3) increase OR efficiency and 4) improve compliance. Here’s a closer look at each.
1. Enhance patient satisfaction
Surgery centers should focus on patient satisfaction scores, because they’re an important factor in determining reimbursements. A clinical assessment can help your surgery center meet this challenge by giving you new tools to support patient safety and drive faster throughput.
From a safety perspective, a clinical assessment reviews your clinical practices and identifies any potential opportunities for improvement. Process reviews include assessing patient comfort, on-time starts and the efficiency of case turnover. A review of patient safety best practices also can include the “time outs” that confirm the right procedure is being performed for the right patient.
Another way a clinical assessment can help you improve patient satisfaction is by studying your current patient flow, identifying potential ways to reduce wait time and make patients more comfortable.
2. Uncover real savings opportunities
Many pack programs haven’t been reviewed for years. Taking a fresh look can help identify hidden waste that can save significant dollars and lower the cost of doing business.
3. Increase OR efficiency
By becoming more efficient with supply and process management and reducing the number of items opened for each case, your surgery center can help improve OR efficiency any increase turnover. That can help your surgery center stay on schedule and potentially handle more cases in less time. Also, working faster means that physicians can potentially return to their offices or hospitals sooner each day.
Overall, process improvements can help your surgery center run more smoothly – such as streamlining delivery schedules and organizing inventory locations more efficiently.
4. Improve compliance
The clinical assessment team provides guidance that can help surgery center establish policies and procedures to ensure compliance with such regulatory organizations as JCAHO, AORN and AAAHC.
As part of this process, the clinical assessment team can observe your surgery center’s compliance with the recommended practices of these organizations. They’ll ask questions like: 1) During set-up, are you labeling medications on the sterile field? 2) Are you pausing for a time out? 3) Are you following sterile techniques?
At Cardinal Health, we assemble a team of perioperative nurses with an average of 20+ years of clinical and supply chain experience. This clinical assessment team can visit your surgery center and collaborate with your staff. This non-disruptive process includes observing the case pick process, procedure set-up and draping practices.
The clinical assessment team combines these learnings with our knowledge of surgery center best practices from across the country to tailor an efficient, cost savings solution for you. Just as every surgery center’s needs are unique, so is every customized solution. Another benefit, there’s no-cost-to-you for the assessment.
Ready to get started? Click here to request more information about a clinical assessment for your surgery center.