As an expansion of our standard healthcare assessment and benchmarking services, The Fox Group offers a highly specialized form of analysis which specifically focuses on efficiency in healthcare operations. Packaged as our “OptiMax” program, this unique, yet well established approach helps to solve one of the most difficult dilemma’s in healthcare delivery systems …
... the ability to establish the highest attainable dual objectives of cost and quality.
Hospital Efficiency … Physician Efficiency … How to Target and Measure
Published benchmarks focus on averages and most frequent results of “like organizations” in the “same geographic regions”. These statistics, when used correctly, can be of considerable value to those healthcare organizations who are trying to understand how close they are to acceptable goals.
However, when it comes to efficiency, is it wise for any healthcare organization to strive to be just above average? And what if those averages and most frequent results are actually under performing?
Data Envelopment Analysis Applied to Efficiency in Healthcare
Our OptiMax program is centered on the use of “Data Envelopment Analysis” (DEA), a sophisticated technique that is well rooted in its focus on efficiency. DEA utilizes linear programming to assess the relationships between inputs (i.e.,clinical cost/patient) and outputs (i.e.,% of Tx plans meeting standards). Simply stated, it reflects the degree of success with which an organization uses its inputs/resources to produce outputs of a given quality, and then establishes specific, attainable operating standards (benchmarks) for the organization’s unique circumstances on a go-forward basis. These benchmarks include targets for both expense and quality, and can be often used as the basis for an organization's Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Balanced Scorecards.
What's more, the results established through data envelopment analysis are intended to be dynamic. Calculations can, and should, be re-run in order to keep the organization moving toward it's top performing capabilities.
The Fox Group finds DEA to be tremendously useful in those healthcare organizations that have multiple, comparable units such as …
- Number of providers
- Multiple facility locations
- Medical services lines
In an engagement with The Fox Group in which DEA will be applied, we can ...
- Help select meaningful indicators
- Coach in the calculation process
- Help establish DEA as an indispensable part of management culture
If you would like to learn more about our OptiMax program, and investigate its potential to help guide your medical organization's focus on efficiency, contact us. We'd be happy to discuss its practical application in your own set of circumstances.