{"id":26643,"date":"2017-11-15T22:44:40","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T03:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/mercy-delivering-better-quality-healthcare-at-a-lower-cost\/"},"modified":"2017-11-15T22:55:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T03:55:48","slug":"mercy-delivering-better-quality-healthcare-at-a-lower-cost","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/mercy-delivering-better-quality-healthcare-at-a-lower-cost\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy: Delivering better quality healthcare at a lower cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the U.S., in order to combat unsustainable rising healthcare costs as well as push for higher quality, provider payments are shifting from fee-for-service to value-based. Essentially, since hospitals receive a fixed amount of money for a given treatment, they must adapt their cost structures if they are to be financially sustainable. <\/span><\/p>\n

The healthcare supply chain starts from manufacturing and goes through to delivery of services to the patient. For hospitals, supply chain expenses make up around 30% of spend, representing a large cost lever [1]. In a 2015 survey, two-thirds of hospital decision makers \u201cstrongly agreed improving the effectiveness of their supply chain will reduce overall costs, increase revenue and lead to better quality of care\u201d [2].<\/span><\/p>\n

Mercy is a large U.S. health care system with over 2000 physicians, 44 hospitals, across 4 states [3]. Leadership at Mercy has recognized the need to innovate and digitize their supply chain and they are among the leading providers in this area [3].<\/span><\/p>\n

Analyzing a combination of clinical and cost data enables providers to find opportunities to simultaneously reduce their expenses and enhance care quality. Mercy created a \u201cUnited Analytics Platform\u201d (UAP) which combined data from across their organization. A dashboard enables everyone to see \u201cthe total cost of care, including labor, product selection, product cost, length of stay and inventory holding costs by procedure, and compare them across the enterprise\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mercy Unified Analytics Dashboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Image Source: Mercy ROi, as published in [4]<\/i><\/p>\n

The impact of this platform has been impressive: In one case, Knee Arthroplasty, sharing trusted data with surgeons catalyzed a behavior change reducing costs per procedure from $6,500 to $5,200 over a few months [4].<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mercy UAP: Perioperative Results \u2014 Total Knee Arthroplasty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Image Source: Mercy ROi, as published in [4]<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Mercy initially implemented UAP in perioperative services. They are extending this across their organization. In the short-term, Mercy plans to share this platform with its suppliers and manufacturers, in an effort to build collaborative partnerships generating further synergies [4].<\/span><\/p>\n

Another short\/medium term initiative is Mercy Virtual, the first large-scale virtual care center in the US [5]. Mercy Virtual and ROi, Mercy\u2019s supply chain arm, are collaborating to find ways of \u201cefficiently deliver[ing] supplies and equipment to patient homes\u201d [6]. Incorporating telematics into the patient\u2019s home enables supply chain responsiveness to replenish supplies or administer care, and play a bigger role in understanding underlying behavioral or environmental issues which are linked to a patient\u2019s condition [5]. Mercy\u2019s work can really pioneer \u201cbreakthroughs in thinking about holistic delivery from hospital to home that deliver dramatically higher satisfaction for patients with far lower costs\u201d [7].<\/span><\/p>\n

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What does a virtual hospital look like? Mercy worked hand-in-hand with WWT to extend their mission far beyond the walls of the Virtual Care Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Image Source: As published in [8]<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Mercy is also playing a bigger role in pushing the industry and sharing best practices. In 2010, they formed the Healthcare Transformation Group (HTG) with leading providers, such as Mayo Clinic. The first initiative of HTG is to push for adoption of GS1 standards, such as barcodes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group produced a video demonstrating the importance of the issue: <\/span><\/p>\n