Better healthcare with performance management from SAS

By employing an automated system fuelled by SAS Strategic Performance Management for Healthcare, hospitals are able to move caregivers away from time-consuming paperwork and report generation. This allows them to spend more time doing what they do best - treating patients and improving patient care.

This can result in the average length of patient stay being reduced by nearly one full day as was the case recently at a US-based hospital. This is according to Konrad Poonasamy, business development manager at SAS Institute SA, who notes that the savings experienced by the Maine Medical Center equated to building a new wing with 50 to 100 additional beds.

He explains that increasing numbers of healthcare executives are embracing the value of performance management systems to help them focus on strategies that improve the health of their patients and boost the financial stability of their organisations.

The Maine United States hospital used the SAS Strategic Performance Management for Healthcare technology to power its balanced scorecard efforts. Maine Medical Center (www.mmc.org) is a 606-bed, voluntary, non-profit, general medical and surgical hospital. It is a primary care facility for the Greater Portland community and serves as the major teaching hospital and tertiary healthcare centre for Maine.

SAS Strategic Performance Management for Healthcare was selected over other vendor offerings largely because of SAS's track record in successfully delivering performance management solutions to other healthcare providers, Poonasamy says.

"SAS was also cited for its excellent reputation as a valued, long-term player in supplying business intelligence solutions to the healthcare industry," he adds.

Leaders at Maine Medical Center began developing a balanced scorecard in 2002, and the programme quickly delivered results. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the length of stay, patient satisfaction, physician satisfaction, patient falls and direct computerised physician order entry rate, were regularly measured, reported and monitored.

Since seeing the results of this focus on key strategies, administrators concluded that an automated, electronic system could help quickly and accurately consolidate, calculate and monitor specific performance metrics. In turn, this system would help maximise the effectiveness of the centre's balanced scorecard system.

He adds that hospital staff at all levels - from the chief executive officer to physicians and nurses - benefit from the Strategic Performance Management for Healthcare solution. "Executives use the scorecard to gauge performance with respect to pre-defined targets, while individual physicians and nursing supervisors can view a dashboard to see how effectively they're treating their patients as compared to other caregivers. In this way, managers can see which physicians or teams are performing best, investigate why they are delivering exemplary care and then accelerate the adoption of best practices throughout the organisation."

Because healthcare organisations deal with many groups that compete for their attention - patients, physicians, caregivers, insurers, members of the community and regulators - it becomes necessary for them to reap the benefits of software solutions that provide better patient care and improve operational efficiency.

SAS Strategic Performance Management for Healthcare lets such organisations focus, communicate and collaborate on strategy and then turn that strategy into action.

"With SAS Strategic Performance Management for Healthcare, organisational leaders can implement balanced scorecards, Six Sigma or other quality frameworks to connect traditional business data, like revenues and profits, with intangible measures such as the satisfaction of patients, employees and physicians. The SAS solution allows executive management to communicate and measure, at an enterprise level, the degree of strategic alignment and the progress toward desired outcomes," Poonasamy concludes.