The Situation
The goal of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is to provide the best quality patient and family-centered care to improve the health of those who live in the communities they serve and to do this more efficiently and effectively to lower medical costs. One of the key initiatives at Wake Forest Baptist is to use real-time technologies coupled with process improvements to optimize resources, streamline workflows and assist in creating the “ultimate patient experience.
The Solution
In order to meet this strategic objective, Wake Forest Baptist partnered with CenTrak's consulting group to establish an Office of Enterprise Visibility. This division is responsible for the implementation of processes, supporting technologies, driving service excellence, patient safety and satisfaction, operational excellence and efficiency, and the transformation of Healthcare Delivery (SPOT). As a result of this focus, Wake Forest Baptist has been recognized as having the most comprehensive implementation of real-time technologies in the healthcare industry.
It is so rewarding to see our staff so engaged with technology. Every day they come up with new and innovative ideas on how to use sensory data to provide the ultimate patient experience.
- Conrad Emmerich, SVP of Supply Chain, Lab and Imaging
Wake Forest Baptist has successfully implemented more than 50 use cases leveraging real-time visibility data. These use cases include asset management, temperature monitoring, wait-time management, infection control, patient and staff locating, milestones of care, and many more. Achieving breadth and depth of use cases is enabled through the execution of a specific vision and multi-year plan along with an enterprise-grade operational intelligence platform. The platform’s APIs are being continually utilized to develop additional integrations and several additional high-value applications
The Benefits
The value of leveraging real-time technologies at Wake Forest Baptist is measurable and sustainable, accounting for more than $10 million in benefit. By automating temperature monitoring processes, Wake Forest Baptist is experiencing a savings of $970,000 per year. Additional benefits include asset management, which is providing a savings of $2 million per year and an increase in staff productivity that is valued at over $2 million per year. Wake Forest Baptist has also been able to save $3.5 million by eliminating the need to purchase redundant systems and avoiding unnecessary costs. The staff fully embraces the value of technology and incorporates it in their daily operations.
Looking back upon the project, Wake Forest Baptist is able to justify the effort and cost based upon the return already received and is looking forward to even more value as the ROI continues to grow with each new use case being deployed
