Using Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare: How Hospitals Can Reduce Healthcare Costs with Real-Time Analytics and Lean Quality
By Al Berning, CEO, Ambient Clinical Analytics
Ambient Clinical Analytics, a Rochester, Minnesota-based company, sells AWARE, a real time clinical analytics support platform with smart notification tools that reduce health care costs and improve patient outcomes. AWARE uses licensed Mayo Clinic technologies, that include over 1,200 proven rules and algorithms, to give critical care providers real-time access to vital point of-care information and analytics based smart notifications for conditions like Sepsis at the bedside. ACA has achieved FDA Class II Clearance, CE Marking, and ISO 13485:2016 Certification on the AWARE platform.
Legacy of Ambient Clinical Analytics Tools
AWARE Platform. Hospital floor situation awareness The AWARE platform supports Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare Quality initiatives in the following ways:
Use a Systematic and Statistically Valid Measurement of Processes using Control Limits
Promote Visual control Throughout the Workplace and Organization
AWARE YES Board is an example:
Sequence Work and Standardize It
AWARE Platform Smart Rounding Checklists are an example of using analytics and checklists to automatically customize a checklist to each patient:
AWARE's innovative dashboard and clinical decision support focuses on reducing information overload and makes it possible to prioritize clinically important information. Used by over a thousand clinicians across multiple hospitals, the AWARE implementations have been associated with marked improvement in clinical outcomes. Adjusted for illness severity, the odds for hospital mortality of critically ill patients treated after AWARE implementation were reduced by half (odds ratio 0.45, 95% confidence interval 0.30 to 0.70). In addition, the length of ICU stay decreased by 50%, length of hospital stay by 37%, and total charges for hospital stay by 30% ($43,745 per hospital admission) [1]. A series of peer-reviewed papers have been published demonstrating AWARE's efficacy as a clinical decision support system. [Example 2]
AWARE has been fully integrated with Epic, Cerner, Allscripts and Meditech and it has been demonstrated in a civilian setting to lead to improvements in provider and team performance, system processes of care reliability, and reduced resource utilization.
Based on previous studies on AWARE, using a human centered interface design for acute care practice, the research has shown improved processes of care, improved patient outcomes and reduced costs. Key outcomes that have been measured include:
Ambient Clinical Analytics Products are Designed to fit a Hospitals Lean Quality & Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare Programs
Ambient Clinical Analytics provides the overall system integration and field deployment of the AWARE platform. Ambient has the development, system integration, field installation and support required for hospital and research projects. The AWARE platform of products has been installed and deployed in dozens of locations around the world. Ambient Clinical Analytics expertise includes regulatory skills in the SaMD category of Health IT products with FDA Class II Clearance, CE Marking, and ISO 13485 Registration.
Ambient Clinical Analytics, a Rochester, Minnesota-based company, sells AWARE, a real time clinical analytics support platform with smart notification tools that reduce health care costs and improve patient outcomes. AWARE uses licensed Mayo Clinic technologies, that include over 1,200 proven rules and algorithms, to give critical care providers real-time access to vital point of-care information and analytics based smart notifications for conditions like Sepsis at the bedside. ACA has achieved FDA Class II Clearance, CE Marking, and ISO 13485:2016 Certification on the AWARE platform.
Legacy of Ambient Clinical Analytics Tools
- Based on Licensed Mayo Clinic Real-Time Analytics Technology Developed Over a 10 Year Period in the ICU and ED Units.
- The Ambient Clinical Analytics Team Has Over 2 Decades of Experience in Implementing Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare Quality Programs in both Medical Technology Products/Software and Storage/Semiconductor Technology Products.
- Value Stream Mapping, Six Sigma, 5S, Plan-Do-Check-Act, Visual Management, Kaizen
AWARE Platform. Hospital floor situation awareness The AWARE platform supports Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare Quality initiatives in the following ways:
Use a Systematic and Statistically Valid Measurement of Processes using Control Limits
- Mayo Clinic AWARE Rules Based Clinical Decision Support is an example of grading all clinical data using control limits:
Promote Visual control Throughout the Workplace and Organization
- Visual control means “management by sight”, that is, the actual progress of work is always visible…..having all department work processes as visible as possible to any employee…have key parameters of work processes visible.
AWARE YES Board is an example:
Sequence Work and Standardize It
AWARE Platform Smart Rounding Checklists are an example of using analytics and checklists to automatically customize a checklist to each patient:
AWARE's innovative dashboard and clinical decision support focuses on reducing information overload and makes it possible to prioritize clinically important information. Used by over a thousand clinicians across multiple hospitals, the AWARE implementations have been associated with marked improvement in clinical outcomes. Adjusted for illness severity, the odds for hospital mortality of critically ill patients treated after AWARE implementation were reduced by half (odds ratio 0.45, 95% confidence interval 0.30 to 0.70). In addition, the length of ICU stay decreased by 50%, length of hospital stay by 37%, and total charges for hospital stay by 30% ($43,745 per hospital admission) [1]. A series of peer-reviewed papers have been published demonstrating AWARE's efficacy as a clinical decision support system. [Example 2]
AWARE has been fully integrated with Epic, Cerner, Allscripts and Meditech and it has been demonstrated in a civilian setting to lead to improvements in provider and team performance, system processes of care reliability, and reduced resource utilization.
Based on previous studies on AWARE, using a human centered interface design for acute care practice, the research has shown improved processes of care, improved patient outcomes and reduced costs. Key outcomes that have been measured include:
- Provider Level: cognitive load, safety culture, team communication, satisfaction, technology usage.
- System Level: Processes of care targets will be identified with local practice but may include items such as use of non-invasive and low tidal volume modes of ventilation , judicious fluid resuscitation and shock reversal, restricted blood product use, DVT prophylaxis, central device removal, goals of care discussion, and sepsis bundle of care compliance.
- Patient level: ICU and overall hospital mortality (unadjusted and severity of illness adjusted), ICU and overall hospital length of stay, ventilator free days, discharge location.
- Development of numerous algorithms covering all aspects of critical care.
Ambient Clinical Analytics Products are Designed to fit a Hospitals Lean Quality & Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare Programs
- Proven to Reduce Errors and Improve Efficiency as demonstrated in Mayo Clinic Published Research
- Products Align with all Key Lean Six Sigma / Quality Tools to Support a Hospital’s Improvement Projects
- Easy to Install with minimal Hospital IT Support Required
- Intuitive/User Friendly Design That Requires Little or No Training to Start Using the Products
- Reasonable Subscription Based Pricing That Will Show an ROI Payback Within Several Months
- Mayo Clinic Team is Available to Provide Support to Reinforce the Use of Products as Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare Quality Tools
Ambient Clinical Analytics provides the overall system integration and field deployment of the AWARE platform. Ambient has the development, system integration, field installation and support required for hospital and research projects. The AWARE platform of products has been installed and deployed in dozens of locations around the world. Ambient Clinical Analytics expertise includes regulatory skills in the SaMD category of Health IT products with FDA Class II Clearance, CE Marking, and ISO 13485 Registration.
- Olchanski, N., et al., Can a Novel ICU Data Display Positively Affect Patient Outcomes and Save Lives? J Med Syst, 2017. 41(11): p. 171.
- Pickering, B.W., et al., The implementation of clinician designed, human-centered electronic medical record viewer in the intensive care unit: a pilot step-wedge cluster randomized trial. Int J Med Inform, 2015. 84(5): p. 299-307.