Eskenazi Health's simplification strategy to two panes of glass through Epic and SAP, powered by Intel, led to 94% improvements in benefits administration, 85% reduction in PO processing time, and 72% improvement in vendor and material master.
As the United States steps cautiously into "a return to normal," healthcare organizations are still grappling with COVID infection rates popping up in different regions. The past year-plus has every hospital closely examining its systems, processes, and underlying technologies to understand what's needed to help them better handle future COVID surges and other pandemics predicted to come our way.
What's clear is that the old ways of assessing patient care through a rearview mirror don't work during a real-time pandemic. And if we're looking back at the years since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, those systems were never designed to manage patient demand proactively.
The root of the problem is that U.S. healthcare is changing from volume- to value-based care, and the legacy systems and processes don't match today's emerging value-based healthcare needs. Patients are also a significant business driver for value-based care as healthcare consumers assume more out-of-pocket costs and bear more responsibility for directing their care. They are demanding to get better quality of care at a reasonable cost.
What we're seeing is a new integrated healthcare reimbursement and performance equation where:
Value-based Healthcare = Great Experiences + Cost Efficient + Good Quality Outcomes
Less Pain with Two-Pane Operation System
Eskenazi Health, a public safety-net hospital that is part of the Health and Hospital Corporation located in Indianapolis and serving central Indiana, has led the way with this new approach. The 327-bed hospital and municipal corporation redefined its operations by restructuring business and technology to flow through two panes of glass. The goal was simplicity, and it worked, moving employees from interfacing with a complex ecosystem of 188 systems to two: SAP and Epic.
All administrative work is managed through SAP solutions, and all clinical systems are managed through Epic. Together, they unify experience, cost, and clinical data, driving business value in real time.
Moving to two panes of glass has created huge operational efficiencies. Employees were logging into 10 to 15 systems to do their work, and they spent lots of time moving data between systems.
After standardizing to Epic and SAP, Eskenazi Health has realized:
· 94% improvement in benefits administration
· 85% reduction in PO processing time
· 72% improvement in vendor and material master
Trusted Partnerships Strengthen Transformation Outcomes
Eskenazi Health turned to Deloitte Consulting, Intel, Epic, and SAP to architect and implement the two-pane system. SAP and Intel have established a history of co-innovation through their long-standing collaboration, and the optimization of SAP HANA on Intel® architecture powered by Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors. The three tech leaders developed a strong partnership during the Eskenazi Health transition and acknowledged that trust and respect for each organization's expertise and knowledge helped lead to the project's immense success.
A significant positive development for Eskenazi Health is renewed energy and accuracy in overall accountability. The healthcare system like many highly regulated entities and spends most of its days being audited from one agency or another. With SAP handling business data, the two-pane system provides an instantaneous, accurate vision of the data. In addition, with Intel’s unmatched portfolio of SAP certified components that can help move, store, and process data, Eskenazi Health is able to deliver flexible infrastructure with agility, scalability, and security.
Eskenazi Health expects the two-pane system to be complete by the end of 2021. It is looking forward to leveraging the incredible amount of data available for real-time and predictive analytics. The healthcare organization sees its simple two-pane vision evolving to solve problems that hadn't been part of the original plan's scope. Executive requests, for example, to have graphs, charts, maps, and other visualizations that address social determinants of health questions are helping the organization communicate more effectively both internally and externally. Also, Eskenazi Health has met diversity and inclusion goals thanks to improvements that enable differently-abled employees.
Real-time Predictive Analytics to Take Aim at Social and Health Disparity Concerns
Looking ahead, Eskenazi Health has a vision of being a data leader in the region. It will be a data repository for other public systems and a resource for insights and predictions on social health determinants.
Sharing data across public health resources and having intelligent analytics could also impact other health issues, such as mental health, clinical research, and clinician burnout. An accurate source of truth based on real-world data at a national scale is a significant step toward responding more effectively and rapidly to both long-term issues that have plagued our overall health and safety and future uninvited pathogens that could become the next pandemic.
Looking to transform your healthcare business? Join the Healthcare Business Transformation Consortium (HBTC). As a customer-led forum for North America healthcare leaders to share insights and best practices to enable your digital transformation to value-based Healthcare. Apply now
The Intel and SAP Partnership
For nearly 50 years, Intel and SAP have made a profound impact on people, business and society on a global scale. Together they are turbocharging breakthrough innovations with the power of in-memory computing and persistent memory technologies that unleash the potential of data. Customers can protect and future-proof their investments, both on premises or in cloud, with a modern infrastructure of validated and SAP-certified components. Learn how SAP HANA and SAP HANA based applications, IntelⓇ XeonⓇ Scalable processors and IntelⓇ Optane™️ Persistent Memory technology are helping organizations realize the promise of in memory computing at www.intel.com/sap.