June 12, 2009 Saint Thomas Health Services, the leading faith-based health-care system in Tennessee, can point to its leadership in addressing today's ever-more pressing mandate to drive down the costs of delivering health care. STHS has done so in part with the implementation of a new patient-flow technology solution.
One solution deployed during an overall redesign effort of STHS’s care-management program across three hospitals was Curaspan Health GroupTM's secure, Web-based eDischargeTM software. STHS began this redesign process and soon added the eDischarge software. Eighteen months later, the system has achieved an estimated savings of $6 million in decreased length of stay.
According to Elizabeth Lemons, BSN, MBA, CPHQ, vice president of clinical effectiveness at STHS, the partnership with Curaspan has helped reduce LOS, improved work productivity, provided more efficient patient throughput, and created a seamless transition of patients to post-acute providers. "The length of stay savings have been significant," said Lemons. "After a review by our finance department, Saint Thomas Health System has reduced systemwide LOS from 4.57 at the end of fiscal year 2007 to 4.37 through the first eight months of fiscal year 2009.”
STHS turned to Curaspan because of its solid reputation, including being named Best Practice Solution for Patient Flow by the Health Care Advisory Board the past four years. Additionally, eDischarge leads its competitors in nearly every category used by KLAS to rate transition planning solutions.
“Other considerations which lead to the decision to implement eDischarge were its interoperability with our core HIS system and a track record of rapid deployment, less than two months on average, yielding a very timely return on investment," said Lemons.
According to Ginny Tacker, director of case management at Saint Thomas Hospital, "In the current health-care climate, there is a need to find smart business solutions to streamline patient throughput. Finding a solution that increases staff efficiencies has been a huge plus."
The process of implementation and training of eDischarge across the system was accomplished in less than eight weeks. The training required staff to spend just 2.5 hours in the classroom.
To have a customized return on investment (ROI) analysis prepared for your organization, visit Curaspan Health Group at Booth No. 2608 during HFMA's 2009 ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference in Seattle, Wash., June 14-17.
Curaspan Health Group builds secure patient-transition networks for hospitals, post-acute providers and suppliers to optimize patient care. Curaspan software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications empower users with real-time, predictive decision-making data that enables all participants to continuously monitor care, improve communication and ensure compliance. This informatics exchange is integrated with the proprietary Curaspan Provider Data Bank, the industry’s most comprehensive and up-to-date system of actionable patient-transition intelligence, and is complemented by the clinical process expertise of credentialed advisors. The Health Care Advisory Board and KLAS repeatedly have recognized Curaspan for its industry-leading software. Curaspan is headquartered in Newton, MA.
The Saint Thomas Health Services regional health system consists of four hospitals - Baptist and Saint Thomas Hospitals in Nashville, Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro and Hickman Community Hospital in Centerville - and a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures in diagnostics, cardiac services and ambulatory surgery as well as medical practices, the Center for Spinal Surgery, clinics and rehabilitation facilities. STHS is a member of Ascension Health, a Catholic organization that is the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States.