How Southern Ohio Medical Center Saved $2 Million Annually with Analytics

Unlocking $2M in Annual Savings

Key takeaways

Background

Southern Ohio Medical Center (SOMC) is a leading not-for-profit hospital based in Portsmouth, OH, which has been serving the community’s healthcare needs since 1954. With more than 3,000 employees, SOMC is deeply embedded within the community and plays a vital role in providing comprehensive healthcare services across southern Ohio. The hospital offers an impressive inpatient unit with 216 beds and operates family health centers across multiple counties, ensuring accessible care for all.

In addition to its core hospital services, SOMC boasts specialty programs such as cardiovascular surgeries, an expanded 340B pharmacy program, and advanced chronic disease management. Driven by a commitment to excellence and a mission to make a difference in the community, SOMC consistently seeks innovative ways to enhance patient care, maintain a skilled workforce, and serve as a trusted healthcare resource in the region.

The challenge

SOMC operates in a rural area that faces economic challenges, and as a result, the hospital has a large population of Medicare and Medicaid patients. Like many hospitals nationwide, SOMC has been facing financial challenges due to growing expenses for supplies and labor. Additionally, the hospital has experienced labor shortages and increased demand on existing staff. SOMC recently upgraded to MEDITECH Expanse EHR but found limitations in accessing and analyzing financial and clinical data in the system.

The finance team needed an easy way to access its data to inform decision-making and control costs. The team’s typical workflow included pulling .txt files from the hospital’s EHR, importing the files into Excel, and sending these reports back and forth between colleagues. This manual, time-consuming process lacked efficiency and couldn’t ensure accurate or timely data.

Hospital management recognized the need to optimize its data approach to better deliver high-quality care cost-effectively. Frontline managers and administrative directors expressed the need for timely access to metrics and reports to best manage their service lines, departments, and finances. Given these challenges, the organization prioritized the implementation of a more efficient data and analytics solution.

The goal

SOMC aimed to overcome its data challenges by finding a robust business intelligence solution to roll out across the organization. The finance team had previously tried using analytics solutions that were not user-friendly, had clunky interfaces, and didn’t inspire confidence in the data. The team’s objectives for their data-driven approach included:

Melania Cox, Administrative Director of General Accounting & Finance spearheaded the initiative to find a new data solution. Cox reported, “We wanted a solution that would allow users across the organization to access reliable data in a timely manner. We were looking for clear, visually appealing formatting of reports and dashboards that would enable us to monitor key metrics across the hospital.”

According to Cox, the data capabilities provided by Dimensional Insight were a “game-changer,” with everyone across the organization excited to see how it could improve their departments.

The solution

With these goals in mind, Cox and the SOMC team began to explore solutions for better managing their data. After researching vendors, they discovered Dimensional Insight’s technology and realized it included all the components they were looking for in a business intelligence solution. Dimensional Insight proved to be the ideal choice due to its:

Cox was particularly impressed with Dimensional Insight’s array of applications focused on specific areas across the hospital. The team started by rolling out General Ledger Advisor and Hospital Operations. Once the team launched the applications, it immediately began finding uses across the hospital. SOMC’s users, including finance and operations department heads, leveraged Dimensional Insight’s capabilities to gain valuable insights into financial data, monitor key metrics, and identify trends and anomalies.

With Dimensional Insight, the finance team could perform detailed analysis down to invoice-level expense line items, while the hospital operations teams used the platform to track orders, ensure proper coding of charges, and identify revenue variances by physicians or departments. According to Cox, the data capabilities provided by Dimensional Insight were a “game-changer,” with everyone across the organization excited to see how it could improve their departments.

The results

Since implementing Dimensional Insight’s solution, SOMC has experienced significant improvements in operational efficiency and financial management. The organization has benefitted from cost-saving opportunities, such as identifying missed physician charges and resolving coding issues.

For example, GL Advisor has streamlined operational Month-End processes and increased financial transparency across the organization. Formerly a cumbersome, multi-step process, now with GL Advisor, department leaders can access their department financial reports at their convenience and dive into expense line items to see invoice entries, PO details, and inventory usage reports. SOMC estimates that through increased visibility and accountability, it will reduce expenses by 1 to 2% annually and save more than 1,000 hours of labor each year, resulting in nearly $2 million in annual savings.

Implementing the Hospital Operations application has also provided real-time transparency of statistical data in a user-friendly format. Cox and her team were able to put powerful data in the hands of SOMC executives and leaders that they previously never had access to. “The data dive ability is amazing,” says Cox, “if you see variances on KPIs you can quickly dive on the data point to varying levels all the way to the patient accounts.”

For example, SOMC recently used Hospital Operations to quickly identify service line locations where the volumes were up over the prior year, but the charges were significantly down. Users then dived within these practice locations to view the volumes by patient accounts and charges by patient accounts, identifying those accounts that were included in the volumes but had no charges. As a result, they quickly remedied the service line locations that had errors with billing and charging. This quick access to data trends enabled the organization to identify the problem, correct it, and bill the charges appropriately. This one period identified almost $500,000 in charges that could have been lost. SOMC estimates that by using similar reviews, it can prevent potential lost revenue of nearly $3 million per year.

The user experience with Dimensional Insight has been overwhelmingly positive, with users reporting improved data accessibility, actionable insights, and increased confidence in decision-making. “It is a mutual feeling across the organization. Everyone from our accountants to our CFO loves the solution,” Cox reports.

What’s next

SOMC plans to expand its use of Dimensional Insight technology in various areas, including ambulatory operations. The organization looks forward to leveraging real-time information from the Ambulatory Operations application to identify missed visits, compare physician performance, and gain a deeper understanding of chronic disease patients.

Additionally, SOMC intends to explore other Dimensional Insight applications to further enhance its data accessibility, analysis capabilities, and overall operational efficiency. With a data-driven approach, SOMC aims to proactively tackle ongoing financial challenges in the healthcare industry, such as budgetary issues, cost increases, and inflation.

Lesson’s learned

Cox encourages other Dimensional Insight users not to hesitate in pursuing their big vision for data analytics and reporting. She highlighted the importance of collaborating with the Dimensional Insight team, who demonstrated a willingness to understand and fulfill SOMC’s specific data needs. Cox noted that Dimensional Insight’s team of healthcare data experts strives to “make ideas come to reality.” Cox also emphasized the value of continuous improvement and adaptation, working with the Dimensional Insight team along the way to reach strategic data goals.

In conclusion, Dimensional Insight’s platform has empowered Southern Ohio Medical Center to streamline data access, enhance clinical decision-making, and find cost-saving opportunities. By providing a comprehensive and user-friendly solution, Dimensional Insight has helped SOMC become a more efficient and data-driven organization, ensuring that the community of Southern Ohio continues to receive exceptional healthcare services.

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