data," says Dr.
Hungerford. "We know
exactly how much
they impact our pro-
gram, or how much
they don't."
For example, when a
vendor tried to sell the
surgeons on a new
coagulator that prom-
ised to limit the
amount of transfusions
needed during hip
replacements and
therefore would have lowered per-case expenses, they discovered
transfusion rates didn't drop as promised.
6. Useful data
The data collection provided by Mercy Medical's consulting partner
identifies process improvement opportunities, which lets Dr. Hunger-
ford's team drive changes they want to make to the episode of care.
Consultants can also provide benchmarking data collected from
facilities within their network, so you can compare your costs, out-
comes, quality measures and revenues against similar programs. That
level of data analysis can help increase revenues, according to Ms.
Doucette, who suggests you collect positive quality data for 6 months
before establishing bundled payments with commercial payers.
"Negotiating with payers can be challenging for such a high-cost
procedure," she says. "You first need to show that your protocols are
A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 7 1
• CHECKING IN Consultants provide advice for managing every aspect of an episode of
care, including post-discharge rehab.
