Identify Your Needs
To identify what objectives you want to accomplish, Misti recommends that you ask yourself: What are the most complaints about? What do you hear from the surgeons? What do you hear from the staff? What are you hearing from your patients? That will help you identify your priorities for improvement.
Do a Gap Analysis
“Step two is to perform a gap analysis, says Mattox. “What you need to do is you need to identify your barriers and outliers and focus on that.” When you can identify surgical variability, it lets you diagnose the root cause analysis, implement behavioral changes, and sustain the improvement with positive feedback loops.
Start Small
“When starting your data-driven journey, it is important not to be too ambitious,” says Mattox. “If you try to say, we’re going increase efficiency by getting in the room on time, having a great turnover, making sure the In-to-Cut is good, [and] making sure surgeons are happy…you’re going to fail every time.”
Start with smaller, more achievable objectives first; there will be lots of time later to expand what you can achieve, but you don’t want to get overwhelmed by taking on too much, too soon.
Be Consistent in your Reporting
One of the most important things when reporting on your OR data, is to be consistent in the numbers you are reporting. “I’m very careful to be consistent in what I report,” says Mattox, “and that way they know when I report something bad, that it’s accurate. When I report something good, it is accurate.” She is very careful to only have a small group of people who control the data, so she can eliminate bias and create objective reports.
Take Advantage of Strategic Consulting and Professional Services for Data Insights and Management
At the annual Caresyntax Customer Summit, Misti was able to learn how to leverage the strategic insights of the professional services team. Caresyntax consultants were able to help Misti clean up her reporting, populations, and data fields, so she now feels confident to pull up a report, just click, and print.
