CLINICAL OPS MANAGEMENT
&
EXCELLENCE
HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS: THE BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE HEALTH
CARE ORGANIZATION
Operations management” concerns the planning and organizing of the administrative, financial and operational
processes of a Healthcare Facility to better direct and utilize internal resources.
organizing a business to optimally utilize its resources, with the end goal to create efficiency, specifically, the
highest possible level of efficiency.
Health care operations include the administrative, financial and legal activities of a hospital, specialty practice,
ancillary care provider or remote health service center.
WHY YOU NEED A HOSPITAL OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Processing Speed & Results
Cost Effective
Reduction in Errors
Data Security & Retrieving Ability
Improved Patient Care
Quality & Compliance
CLINICAL OPERATIONS EXCELLENCE
A multiprong approach that puts physicians—and clinical care—at the heart of performance transformation
efforts to help hospitals and health systems deliver more financially sustainable, patient-oriented, and
physician-friendly care.
Emphasis is placed on improving care delivery as well as nonclinical operations.
Process improvement and change management concepts to increase operational efficiency and reduce
clinical variability.
The ultimate objective is to drive down the total cost of care while maintaining or improving care quality.
Reducing clinical variability (e.g., through inventory reduction).
lower supply costs (e.g., by shifting to one or two vendors)
Increase the pace of care delivery (e.g., by reducing the number of potential paths of care)
Shorten average length of stay (e.g., by initiating care sooner in the care pathway)
Reduce the likelihood of adverse events (e.g., by standardizing and error-proofing medical/nursing
workflows).
Ensuring that all patients receive high-quality care in a reproducible and evidence-driven manner.
As the quality and efficiency of care delivery rise, per-patient costs decrease, outcomes improve, patient and
staff satisfaction increase, referral streams expand, and high-volume physicians become less likely to
migrate to other hospitals.
It requires a complex combination of approaches to streamline processes (including those for patient
admissions and discharges), standardize clinical protocols, and rationalize supply utilization.
WHAT PREVENTS HOSPITALS FROM ACHIEVING
CLINICAL OPERATIONS EXCELLENCE?
Belief that physicians, especially high-volume physicians, are not willing to engage in performance
improvement efforts.
This concern is unwarranted. In late 2011, a survey conducted among 1,400 US physicians in a variety of specialties; 84
percent of the respondents said that they were willing to change at least some aspects of their practice to remove waste from
healthcare.
In hospitals that have achieved clinical operations excellence, strong clinician engagement is encouraged and embraced.
Underestimation of the magnitude of change required.
Too often, hospital leaders give the change program no more time, attention, or resources than had been allocated to
previous, smaller improvement efforts.
The efforts require constant and significant engagement from senior leaders to set expectations, nurture new ideas, and
remove roadblocks (both structural and human).
A third barrier to success is a failure to use a pragmatic, rigorously quantifiable approach to
value creation in the clinical setting.
In hospitals with best-in-class clinical operations programs, hospitals’ executives ensure the sustainability
of these efforts by making ongoing investments to build capabilities and strengthen performance
management systems.
A fourth barrier centers around lack of leadership and role-modeling.
Fifth, many internal performance improvement groups have a tendency to “cut and paste”
approaches that work in manufacturing directly into healthcare settings.
TOOLS REQUIRED FOR CLINICAL OPERATIONAL
EXCELLENCE
Mind-sets and capabilities
The performance improvement program must include a structured approach to
change mind-sets and build capabilities throughout the organization, including frontline
and back-office staff.
Physician engagement
Program management
Visible leadership support