Monument Health Increased Released Minutes by 17% to Improve OR Scheduling and Efficiency
1,600 FCFS minutes managed per OR per month through iQueue's Capacity tool
880 Minutes of released OR time is requested again through Exchange every month
17% Increase in released minutes with 442 reminders to providers about unused time

Summary

The Monument Health system has been dedicated to serving the community and providing high quality healthcare since 1878. Comprising five hospitals throughout the Black Hills, South Dakota region, the system is part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, which provides improved quality of care to patients at no additional cost.

The largest hospital in Monument Health, Rapid City Hospital is a community hospital in South Dakota, consisting of 12 operating rooms, 4 endoscopy suites, and is a licensed Level II trauma center. Rapid City Hospital is the largest medical center in the region, supporting over 360,000 people in western South Dakota.

Profile

Largest of 5 hospitals in health system

12 ORs, 4 endoscopy suites

360,000 patient regional footprint

Problem

At Monument Health perioperative departments, gaining access to operating room open time was mainly completed over the phone or via fax. Only one or two clinics could reach the OR scheduling team at once, without any guarantee the time they needed would be available once they did connect with them. On top of this, given the constantly evolving schedule due to COVID-19, opening and closing first-come, first-serve rooms quickly became a priority. This was not easily executed through Monument Health’s EHR. 

For leadership, pulling key metrics for surgeons and managers is often a manual and time-consuming process when working directly with an EHR. This becomes even more difficult when trying to create visualizations for day-to-day operational decisions. It was critical for the Monument Health team to easily see how many rooms they needed to staff throughout the day and ensure no resources were going unused.

Solution

Monument Health implemented iQueue for Operating Rooms’ Exchange module to increase the efficiency of scheduling teams looking for OR time. Clinics can now immediately see times available in the OR that fit their provider’s case criteria. This eliminates the time-consuming phone calls and faxes when looking for first-come, first-serve time, while also providing alternative scheduling opportunities when needed. Additionally, iQueue allows OR schedulers to quickly manage open time as soon as staffing, equipment, or policy constraints arise, rather than making more complicated changes on the scheduling grid.

The Analyze module has further allowed the leadership team at Monument Health to quickly view metrics and create reports without needing to manually calculate or pull data from their EHR. To further support data transparency, personalized performance reports are sent to providers and managers to ensure they have convenient access to their data. The room usage visualizers have been an important data point used to support staffing decisions and increase efficiency. Using iQueue’s visualization solutions, the Monument Health team is able to determine when staffing is needed, and when resources can be conserved or repurposed.

Download the full iQueue for Operating Rooms case study booklet

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