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Improving Patient Access Through Data Driven OR Operations · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast.
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  I am thrilled today to be joined by
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  a brilliant leader. We're we're joined today by
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  a leader of the University of Kansas Health
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  System.
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  We're joined by Megan Eubanks, and Megan serves
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  as a senior director of business operations,
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  preoperative, and procedural services. She's gonna talk to
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  us about a lot of the improvements, the
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  things we're doing to improve efficiency, and and
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  a lot more today. Megan, we are so
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  thrilled to have you with us. Can you
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  take a moment to introduce yourself and tell
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  us about your role,
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  your focus within perioperative
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  operations, and also a little bit about the
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  University of Kansas Health System?
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  Sure, Scott. Thank you for having me. Like
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  you mentioned, I serve as the senior director
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  of business operations for periopt and procedural services
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  at the University of Kansas Health System. On
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  the the surgical side of of where I
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  support, we support both surgical and procedural. But
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  on the surgical side specifically,
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  I support seven surgical locations with about 66
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  operating rooms across the health system, which collectively
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  perform more than 40,000 surgeries a year and
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  growing.
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  My role sits at the intersection of operations,
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  access, and strategy. I spend most of my
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  time working with physicians, nursing leaders,
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  anesthesia, and operational teams to figure out how
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  we can use our OR capacity as effectively
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  as possible.
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  At the end of the day, my goal
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  is pretty simple. It's to make it easier
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  for patients to get the care they need
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  while making sure the system works well for
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  the teams delivering that care.
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  Thank you. And you've been at the University
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  of Kansas now for almost thirteen, fourteen years.
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  Great leadership career there. Just just remarkable.
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  At some point, we'll also talk to you
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  about surety bike riding, if I could motivate
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  you to do so. But but we'll first
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  focus on, you know, health care and and
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  where we're at. But I know you also
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  do great philanthropic work too.
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  Talk a little bit about
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  health care policy and health care constantly is
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  facing changes,
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  some sort of policy changes to workforce shortages,
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  to supply chain disruptions.
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  Building
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  operational resilience
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  is top of mind for many leaders, and
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  we've seen such resilience over the last few
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  years post COVID. Really amazing
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  what the nation's health care systems have done
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  to sort of get back at it and
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  and and get
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  hiring improved and producing
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  great nurses
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  and what we've done in terms of resilience.
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  Talk about how you think about building resilience
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  in the perioperative space and what made you
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  turn to artificial intelligence
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  in a partnership with Linktas in that regard,
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  in terms of the perioperative space and and
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  using AI for efficiency?
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  Yeah. When we talk about resilience in our
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  areas, it really comes down to access. So,
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  I think we've had to be more and
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  more resilient over the last several years,
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  just due to some of the the issues
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  that have popped up in health care, COVID
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  being being one of those, which is when
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  we started our journey with lean toss. But
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  it's really making sure that, you know, no
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  matter what what you face in in the
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  OR that patients can still get access to
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  care even when we have constraints on our
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  resources. So a few years ago when we
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  started digging into our data, we found something
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  interesting.
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  On paper, a 100% of our ORs were
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  blocked. They were allocated,
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  to surgical blocks. So it looked like the
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  system was full.
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  But when you actually dug into utilization, it
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  was only about 50 to 55%.
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  So surgeons
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  had time,
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  but patients were still struggling to get access
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  and, we were struggling to allocate new block
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  or new time whenever a surgeon started within
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  our system.
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  On top of that, we had block releases
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  that are happening really late.
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  So about forty eight to seventy two hours
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  in advance, which means we didn't have a
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  lot of flexibility
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  for people to pick up time,
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  once it was made available.
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  We have a lot of data in Epic,
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  but we didn't really have a way to
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  translate that data into operational decisions.
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  You know, I think data doesn't always equal
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  information.
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  But that's really what led us to partner
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  with Laintas in in 2021.
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  Having access to AI and those advanced analytics
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  really helped us match
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  our surgical demand,
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  need for patient access with the available time
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  that we had to use our resources more
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  effectively.
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  Our goal really wasn't just efficiency.
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  I I think that is a big goal,
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  but it's really helping to build a system
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  that is scalable, that could flex and adapt
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  to conditions when they change.
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  Thank you. And talk for a second, Megan,
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  about sort of you you mentioned Epic for
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  a moment, but talk about Epic first, Epic
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  only versus using other solutions when they really
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  make a difference for you in different areas.
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  What's the difference that you have now
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  into visibility and what's happening in terms of
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  the ORs and helping to make better day
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  to day decisions in the OR, since you
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  moved to the AI and wing toss approach
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  versus being defaulting to Epic only. Talk a
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  bit about the difference that you see. Sure.
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  Epic, I think, gives a lot of data.
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  It makes a lot of data available to
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  us. I think, administratively,
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  I do believe in building as much into
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  one single platform as possible.
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  But the challenge with Epic is it is
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  an overwhelming amount of of clicks and work
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  and data that is available, and a lot
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  of times, teams have to pull multiple reports
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  together
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  and really
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  do extra work to interpret what that means
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  operationally.
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  Visibility to to data alone doesn't change behavior.
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  We're a lean organization
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  and, believe in signals and and that's truly
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  what teams need in order to determine
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  what actions to take.
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  I I think that
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  tools like LeanToss help translate really complex data
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  into
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  information
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  that can help provide operational guidance and serve
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  as those signals. So we send alerts out
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  to all of our surgeons on how they're
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  performing.
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  It the predictive analytics show you your time
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  in in advance and whether or not it
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  would typically be booked and invite you to
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  release that time so another surgeon can pick
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  it up.
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  And so it really allows our surgeons and
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  our operational leaders to quickly see how we're
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  performing,
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  identify where those opportunities are to pick up
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  additional time, and then where we have unused
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  capacity.
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  So that allows our teams to take action
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  quickly in real time rather than spending time
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  seeking out and digging through reports that they
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  have to interpret themselves.
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  Thank you. And I think you mentioned that
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  you're doing about 40,000
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  procedures or surgeries a year, which is which
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  is obviously a massive number.
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  You've seen over the last few years increased
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  volume,
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  stronger prime time utilization,
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  improved release fill, and and great growth in
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  open time demand while running fewer ORs.
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  What organizational matters levers matter the most
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  in in trying to help you sustain that
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  growth through staffing and resource constraints and challenge
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  of staff and resources? We've done a remarkable
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  job of making greater use, of the operating
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  rooms,
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  and using fewer operating rooms, quite frankly, and
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  increasing number of procedures. That's an amazing throughput
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  sort of evolution and and and testament to
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  what you're doing. What levers have made the
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  biggest difference? What's helped?
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  Yeah. Thank you.
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  One of the most important levers that that
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  I believe in is creating transparency.
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  One one of the things that we found
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  that I thought was interesting and I still
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  find really interesting is that the more that
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  we were transparent
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  with our data, the more that individuals started
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  governing even themselves. And so
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  having that transparency around block performance and then
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  what time is available in the OR has
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  been extremely powerful for us. So
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  that would be a first lever that I
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  I would always recommend.
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  I think our surgeons have the opportunity now
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  to see clearly how their blocks are performing
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  and it naturally encourages
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  behaviors around blocks. So making sure that we're
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  releasing time earlier,
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  being able to surface available time earlier so
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  that time doesn't go unused and so it
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  just creates a healthier system where release time
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  can be picked up.
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  Especially for those surgeons, we're we're growing organizations
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  so those surgeons that have demand
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  that may not have as much time as
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  they need in the OR.
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  As a result, we've seen
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  three to 8% year over year surgical volume
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  growth. We're getting pretty busy, so some of
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  our areas are close to to capped at
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  this point,
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  but we're able to maintain our prime time
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  utilization around 72 to 74. Across the board,
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  we have some that are some areas that
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  are trending well above that. And then our
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  release fill rate is fifty four percent, which
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  means the ORs and the clinics, the surgeons
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  and the and the teams in the clinics
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  are actively paying attention to the time that
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  comes available and taking advantage of that.
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  Our engagement from our surgeons is strong,
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  and so we've seen about a twenty three
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  percent year over year growth for demand for
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  open time.
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  That that that's remarkable. It's literally remarkable what
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  you've done. Talk a little bit about for
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  for leaders trying to build surgical operations
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  that can withstand shocks, that could be resilient,
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  where should they start across their journey? And
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  what's one early move that helps to build
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  momentum without getting a lot of complexity? That
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  that's where the goal is to add momentum,
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  be resilient, withstand challenges,
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  and get the operating rooms humming, really, to
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  make sure things are busy and and can
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  keep, you know, no mission without margin and
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  and truly the case.
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  What what can leaders do? You know, at
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  the end of the day, you have to
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  build governance into your processes. So you can
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  implement something that works really well and let
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  it slip if it if it's not included
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  in your policy. So for us, we built
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  a use of all of our tools for
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  IQ directly into all of our policies. So
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  our block policy indicates
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  that we use the data that is available,
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  the insights that are available through IQ
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  as part of our policy, which we're reviewing,
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  pretty consistently with our service line leadership and
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  what I refer to as opportunity analytics. So
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  really looking at instead of having a heavy
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  hand,
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  really looking at it from a partnership perspective
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  and identifying where those opportunities are that can
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  surface for them to be able to make
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  informed decisions from. And so we also have
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  built into our scheduling policy. So if you're
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  requesting additional time in the OR, you're required
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  to use IQ to do that.
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  So it's not just a side product, it's
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  part of our process and it's built into
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  our policy and it's built into our governance
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  as well.
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  And then that way instead of it becoming
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  a one time initiative, it just becomes the
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  way that we operate,
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  as part of our operating model. And that
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  that structure really keeps all of our decisions
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  transparent
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  based on data and that we're all speaking
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  the same language across the surgeons, the clinics,
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  clinical leaders in the OR as well as
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  administrators.
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  Really remarkable. Can can I ask you one
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  or two more questions if you're okay with
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  it? Sure.
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  Thank you. So you are,
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  leading this year. You're co chairing this year
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  the MS ride,
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  for charity.
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  Talk a bit about your commitment to charitable
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  efforts and and why that's so important to
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  you. Yeah. Of course. Well, I picked up
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  cycling,
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  just just by virtue of of wanting to,
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  stay active and and build a community here
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  in Kansas City.
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  Last year was the first year that we
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  built a team, a very teeny tiny team
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  around, bike MS,
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  and ended up joining a larger team that
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  has been wildly successful called the the Royal
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  Blue Riders, and they've had many years of
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  success.
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  And so this year,
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  I've been granted the opportunity to co chair
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  that group
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  with a a big group of people that
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  ride, and I think they're the second highest
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  revenue generator for MS
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  research in the Kansas City area.
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  And it really is bred from the fact
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  that we love to to ride bikes and
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  and cycle as much as we can.
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  And then also my partner's sister has been
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  diagnosed for MS, so it's near and dear
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  to our heart to raise money,
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  to support research in that area.
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  Well, it's it's fantastic
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  what you do,
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  both professionally and personally. Just fantastic, Megan. I
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  I I I love the story of how
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  you're working with link toss and the efficiency
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  you're bringing to the ORs and the resilience
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  and the shock absorption that that helps. It's
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  it's a raising stat,
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  higher number of procedures, higher number of surgeries,
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  using fewer operating rooms, and and getting more
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  people into the prime time slots. It's really
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  a remarkable story and effort.
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  Congratulations,
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  Megan. It's great to visit you too. We'd
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  love to get you back on to talk
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  leadership and some of your advice for leadership.
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  Just a tremendous,
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  career in leadership career. Thank you so much
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  for joining us today on the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. Thank you very much. Thank you, Scott.