5 Strategy Management Software Use Cases in Hospitals

Hospitals have to deliver high-quality patient care while managing heavy operational and financial pressure. Patient outcomes, satisfaction and financial sustainability sit at the top of most hospital priority lists. Strategy management software helps by putting the goals, measures and projects behind those priorities in one place, where leaders can review them on a regular schedule. Below are five common uses in hospitals, followed by case studies from two hospitals that use ClearPoint.

Five ways hospitals use strategy management software

1. Improve the hospital star rating

Star ratings summarize quality of care and patient experience. They can sway patient choice, reimbursement levels and a hospital's public reputation. Ratings are calculated from five measure groups: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care. In ClearPoint, hospitals can organize their star-rating measures by those five groups and their weights, so they can see which groups are strong and where to aim improvement work.

2. Manage the revenue cycle

Revenue cycle management (RCM) covers the administrative and clinical steps that capture, manage and collect patient service revenue: registration, insurance and benefit verification, charge capture, claim submission and payment processing. When it works well, services are billed accurately, payments arrive on time and staff spend less time fixing billing errors. In ClearPoint, hospitals can track RCM KPIs such as total encounters, charges, collections, procedure numbers, adjustments and outstanding accounts receivable side by side. Spotting a trend or deviation early lets the team correct course quickly.

3. Move toward value-based pricing

Value-based pricing sets prices on the value to the patient rather than on a cost-plus model. It follows the wider shift to value-based care, which rewards patient outcomes and satisfaction over the volume of services. Hospitals can use strategy software here to track the outcome, readmission and satisfaction measures that the model depends on, and to report progress on the projects meant to move them.

4. Run quality improvement projects

Quality improvement in healthcare means steady, data-driven changes to processes that improve patient care, reduce errors and improve outcomes. Many quality measures are also regulatory requirements, so tracking them supports compliance as well. In ClearPoint, each project gets clear goals and measures, which shows the team which practices work and which areas need attention.

Southern Ohio Medical Center, a 211-bed hospital, runs its quality work this way. Because a quality improvement plan is a regulatory requirement, quality improvement is built into its reporting, accreditation, research and informatics. Before ClearPoint, the hospital relied on spreadsheets, which made proving compliance during regulatory audits difficult. Now its improvement projects, called “A Better Way,” sit in ClearPoint with their process maps, fishbone diagrams and data. All 200+ providers also have an individual dashboard with their own performance metrics, tied to credentialing, privileging and other incentives.

5. Track HEDIS measures

HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) is used mainly by health insurers to measure performance on key dimensions of care and service. Hospitals also apply its measures to benchmark themselves against national standards and other providers. Insurers often weigh HEDIS performance in contract negotiations and reimbursement rates. Hospitals can use ClearPoint to track and report HEDIS-related measures alongside their other quality goals.

What hospitals get from managing strategy this way

Each of these uses comes down to one place to set objectives, track progress and review outcomes. Leaders see operations, finance and patient care measures together instead of in separate reports. Hospitals can set performance metrics for each department and review them regularly against benchmarks, which shows where teams excel and where they need work. The same tracking simplifies compliance reporting, and it makes it easier to adjust the plan when regulations or patient expectations change. For more on the management side, see these performance management strategies.

Hospital case studies: Carilion Clinic and San Juan Regional Medical Center

Carilion Clinic

Carilion Clinic is a not-for-profit healthcare organization in Roanoke, Virginia. When its case study was written, it had 13,000 employees and over a million patient visits a year. Its previous performance system was cumbersome and caused data errors and misalignment across departments, so Darren Eversole, Director of Finance, moved it to ClearPoint. Carilion built a scorecard system that measures performance at both the senior leadership and provider levels, ties 20% of provider compensation to performance, and at the time managed around 300 scorecards in ClearPoint. Read the full Carilion Clinic case study.

San Juan Regional Medical Center

San Juan Regional Medical Center (SJRMC) in New Mexico is a 198-bed Level III trauma center. Its previous software lacked a full dashboard, which made it hard to see how each department contributed to the hospital's larger goals. After switching to ClearPoint, SJRMC reported an 89% reduction in reporting time and an 83% improvement in building new reporting requirements. Automatic calculations and report generation simplified its accreditation audits, and managers began tracking and improving their own departments' metrics. Read the full San Juan Regional Medical Center case study.

Accreditation is where SJRMC felt the change most. The hospital is accredited by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), and periodic audits require specific data points to be deliverable on demand. ClearPoint lets teams attach proof to reports, dashboards and records. In a recent DNV audit, the hospital’s stroke manager had all her metrics ready and reviewed them one by one, and the audit went flawlessly.

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Related: 9 Challenges Solved by Healthcare Performance Management Software