Perioperative Operational Assessment & Consulting
Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. offers a comprehensive assessment of your surgery department and other invasive procedure area operations that includes a thorough review of your service to your patients, their families, the physicians and employees. This is an excellent place to begin if you aren’t sure of the source of your problems or if you think your perioperative services have unrealized potential.
During this review, a team will assess all aspects of the department’s quality program, financial performance, employee and physician relations, as well as opportunities for volume and revenue growth. In the end, you will have a list of identified issues and recommendations for resolution or enhancement. Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. doesn’t stop there, however. Our job is to help you fix operational problems, not just identify them, and that includes supporting change implementation efforts.
Components of the Surgery Department Operational Assessment
Review of People Practices
Below is an outline of some of the issues we address and assessments we make in order to fully review perioperative services operations from the perspective of the people involved.
- Service to the Patient: Patient communication before, during and after surgery is imperative to a quality patient experience and includes everything from providing information to monitoring pain and respecting confidentiality. At Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. we review and assess your process to ensure patient needs are addressed.
- Service to the Family: It is equally important to keep the family comfortable, informed and respected. We assess this process to ensure that’s happening.
- Service to the Physician: Physicians use your surgical services for a variety of reasons, including accessibility, convenience, facility, quality and relationships. This is a key aspect of the Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. assessment process.
- The Staff’s Service to Each Other: A happy staff is the first step to achieving overall satisfaction of the patients and physicians, so the assessment process must include a thorough overview of internal morale, culture, facility and resources.
Quality Clinical Services
A major component of a department review focuses on the quality of the program. A member of our team will observe surgeries to see how consistently the department addresses National Patient Safety Goals, AORN Recommended practices, and infection prevention activities. A team member will also review practices within your sterile processing department to ensure you are adhering to all regulatory standards and recommended practices. Our assessment is comprehensive and includes review of all the policies, procedures, processes and controls that lead to excellence.
Financial Performance
Of course financial performance is always a concern and an objective measure of a surgery department’s successful operations. Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. compares productivity to national benchmarks, reviews supply utilization, preference list systems, room utilization and turnover time.
Personnel Management
Employee morale and retention are key indicators of a healthy operating room. Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. performs staff interviews, reviews performance appraisals and assesses your competency review process.
Market Opportunities
Finally, Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. looks at your market and identifies opportunities for additional growth in volume and revenue.
The Value of a Thorough Assessment
It is obvious that a thorough assessment provides valuable information to continue service improvements over the long term. But it may be a valuable short-term solution as well since an obvious problem does not always stem from a directly-related source. An issue in an unrelated area can impact results in another.
Consider the following value added services when making your decision regarding the assessment:
- Enhanced delivery of high quality care and a minimization of errors
- Retention of departmental staff with a high level of competency
- Cost-effective delivery with financial targets identified
- A structure that will allow for ongoing growth
- A structure that can be duplicated in other departments within the hospital
- An outstanding reputation within the community
- A high degree of physician, staff and patient satisfaction
Case In Point:
Analysis of surgical volume and room utilization at one facility was used to determine the number of anesthesia providers necessary to provide service at a 15 room OR leading to a reduction of over $500,000 in anesthesia stipend annually.
Case in Point:
Over the last 8 years Alpha Consulting Group, Inc. has performed several operational assessments in facilities ranging in size from 3 to over
30 operating rooms to assess practices in all invasive procedures areas including OR, L&D, Cardiac Catheterization Lab; and Invasive Radiology. Variations in standards and regulatory compliance are identified and standardized within these facilities.