Becker's Hospital Review

38 Executive Briefing: Healthcare Transportation Sponsored by: Healthcare Transportation as an Integration Agent By Heather Punke N ews stories abound on the challenges and opportunities created by national and state healthcare reform. Healthcare executives are responding to reform by expanding the footprint of their health systems through mergers and acquisitions and other strategic partnerships built around a push to increase care outside of the four walls of the hospital. As the reach of a single hospital or healthcare system continues to grow, connecting all of a system's entities and caregivers becomes more challenging and creates many complex business considerations.  It is extremely difficult to coordinate and implement the integration of an entire health system, given their complexity. Numerous pieces have to fall into place for all the points of care, service lines, clinicians, support staff and administrators to unify as one system. Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy had a similar problem. "When I first joined Mercy, we had eight different materials systems deployed across the system," says Vance Moore, senior vice president of operations at the health system. Facilities were making their own decisions on when and how to buy supplies and services, including transportation providers, he explains, which drove up costs for the system and simply wasn't efficient. Logistically, it was a jumble. As the reach of a single hospital or healthcare system continues to grow, connecting all of a system's entities and caregivers becomes more challenging Some of these integrating pieces are much discussed, such as electronic medical records and and creates many complex business governance. However, one aspect of integration is often overlooked, but can have a major impact considerations. on the efficiency and future success of an integrated system: logistics. More specifically, healthcare transportation as a part of logistics is especially important. TransporConversely, a strong, centralized transportation network can help clean up tation touches nearly every area of an organization, as it is responsible for the messy logistics brought on by integration efforts and can contribute to the system-wide movement of all patient- and business-critical materials, the overall success of an integrated health system. such as lab specimens, pharmaceuticals, supplies and medical records. Standardizing operations. A big driver of integration success is standardizing Healthcare transportation and integration operations and implementing the use of best practices across the facilities Done well, healthcare transportation can play a pivotal role in helping disof an entire organization. Utilizing a single source for medical transportaparate organizations successfully integrate into a singular, integrated option facilitates that process. "[Transportation] is a standardizing agent that erating system. Utilizing a single source for healthcare transportation facan move things across an organization more cleanly," Mr. Crampton says. cilitates that process. "Pulling all [transportation] together through a single Mr. Lubotsky believes that utilizing medical transportation is an important pipe is a tremendously integrating opportunity," says Jake Crampton, CEO part of unifying the operations of a system. "We are consistently looking of MedSpeed, a healthcare transportation solutions provider. "Transportaat our operations and what we can integrate as a system," he says of Adtion is an agent there to move a system from an environment of fragmentavocate's integration efforts. "And [using MedSpeed as the sole provider of tion to one of integration." transportation services] falls in context of looking for ways to continually Advocate Health Care, based in Oak Brook, Ill., is an integrated healthcare integrate and standardize our operations." system with 10 acute-care hospitals, two children's hospital and more than 250 Mercy, too, has experienced the positive effects that a unified transportasites of care. However, according to Tom Lubotsky, vice president of supply tion system has on a health system's general integration efforts. "Transporchain and clinical resource management for Advocate, the facilities did not altation is such an integral part of an integration practice," Mr. Moore says. ways work as one system. "Each hospital had its own courier-type service," he says of the system's old way of doing things. "It was very fragmented."

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