Success Stories

SSM Health Increased Patient Volume by 18% Without Adding Infusion Chairs

18% Increase in patient volume without adding chairs

44% Decrease in chair wait time

25% Decrease in drug wait time

30% Increase in afternoon median chair utilization

Summary

SSM Health is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system serving the comprehensive health needs of communities across the Midwest through a robust and fully integrated health care delivery system. With care delivery sites in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, SSM Health includes 23 hospitals, more than 290 physician offices and other outpatient and virtual care services, and 12 post-acute facilities. It is one of the largest employers in every community it serves. In 2021, our community oncology sites served approximately 3,000 patients with over 38,700 visits in St. Louis alone.

Profile

26 centers

Epic EHR

Community Health System

Midwestern US

Problem

SSM Health struggled with extremely busy morning rushes that were followed by slow afternoons, which led to imbalanced nurses workloads and nurses missing their breaks. Efficiency and throughput was also hampered by major pharmacy bottlenecks and major constructions that constrained daily operations.

Solution

iQueue for Infusion Centers was implemented at four SSM cancer centers during a difficult 2 years of COVID-19 surges, and as a result they saw significant improvement in their operational agility, patient volumes, wait times, afternoon appointment utilization and overall nurse satisfaction. SSM had to close several chairs at their Kisker clinic due to a construction project, and successfully shifted appointments to a nearby site using iQueue templates to maintain patient care.