Altru Advanced Orthopedics
Altru Advanced Orthopedics Chooses Sonitor Sense™ RTLS to Intelligently Drive Innovative New Models of Care Delivery.
Altru Advanced Orthopedics, part of the Grand Forks, North Dakota-based Altru Health System, deployed Sonitor Sense RTLS in 2016. Working with consultants from Eide Bailly who analyzed Altru’s business processes and determined technology could dramatically improve patient flow and staff workflow processes, Altru deployed the Sonitor Sense RTLS platform to increase the value-added time clinicians spent with patients and decrease the nonvalue-added time spent performing tasks that proved to be time wasters. Prior to installing the Sonitor RTLS solution, Altru established a baseline by launching an initial survey period which revealed that providers were spending upwards of 50% of their time on administrative tasks away from patients. Additional observations included evaluations of patient wait times, patient cycle times, staff workflow and staff productivity.
“Data from the Sense RTLS system became core to what the clinical team is all about. We always had the patient voice because we were constantly asking ‘how’s this working for you? Do you mind these tags?’ and the answers are always very positive. Now with the impact of the data from the system, clinicians and administrators are big fans as well.“
- Jeremy Gardner, MD, Medical Director of Musculoskeletal Services, Altru Health System
One of Altru’s goals by partnering with Sonitor was to optimize processes to ensure efficient utilization of resources. Tags were deployed for both patients and staff and once the Sense RTLS system was fully deployed, Altru again analyzed patient and staff movement and time. By comparing past data against real-time information now available through the highly accurate, ultrasound-based Sense RTLS, bottlenecks were identified and addressed. Altru chose to partner with Sonitor because they were confident that they would get the accuracy and reliability they needed to evaluate “value added time” (VAT) and “non-value-added time” (NVAT), for all providers as well as patients. As a result of the RTLS deployment and analysis, Altru was able to make meaningful process changes and put a system in place to drastically improve patient wait times and provider work flow. Altru has realized measurable decreases in patient cycle time, reduced nursing hours and continues to experience consistent increases in annual net revenue.
Over a three-month period:
Altru successfully reduced the average cycle time per patient by 25%, increasing patient satisfaction.
Altru converted over 4,500 minutes each week from non-value-added time (NVAT) to value-added time (VAT).
Reduction in NVAT allowed them to add more patient visits resulting in more than 92 additional surgical cases during the three-month period.
Nursing time was also dramatically reduced by over 2,200 hours allowing nursing staff to be reallocated to other lines of service, maximizing utilization and optimizing resource capacity needs.
Altru capitalized on all of these improvements to ultimately drive a 24% increase in annualized net revenue in the first six months after RTLS deployment.
“Patients say the tags enable them to know that when they go to radiology, for example, the radiologist is ready for them. When they come back into the patient room, the nurse walks right in immediately because she knows the patient is in there thanks to the tags! Nurses like to kid that it’s all ‘magic’ but it’s the RTLS technology that enables a superior patient and provider experience that has delivered dramatic, measurable – some might say magical - results for the Altru team.”
- Jill Wilson, Administrator of Clinic Operations, Altru Health System
Altru’s success is reflected in the clinic’s status within the health system as a place of innovation and efficiency. Two years after applying intelligent process design, Altru Health System has standardized their processes and decreased variation. Patients are spending more time with providers yet less time in the clinic, caregivers are managing change more efficiently and finding that they are left with more quality time to allocate to what matters – both at Altru and beyond.