How would you like to add ten million to your bottom line? Sounds impossible doesn't it? Particularly in these challenging economic times. Well, as you know, trying times often create the impetus necessary to achieve significant breakthroughs. For example let me describe a patient throughput breakthrough recently achieved at a 400-bed teaching hospital in an economically challenged area of Ohio.

With no change to their case mix, the hospital lowered their average length of stay from 5.1 to 4.4 -- a 14 percent improvement and reduced their direct costs by $8.6 million. In spite of a flat market, they were able to increase their admission volume by 11.2 percent, because their admitting physicians found that this hospital's improved efficiency and throughput was a more attractive practice environment than that of their competitors. Total impact? $10.3 million in less than twelve months!

The Health Systems Institute at Georgia Tech, the nation's leading health systems engineering program, conducted an independent ROI evaluation of this hospital's performance, validating these findings and estimated that they are on pace to achieve year-to-year improvements of $13 to $17 million.

So, what made this breakthrough possible? Could your hospital or health system also realize these kinds of gains? The answer to both questions is a resounding yes! In short, these breakthrough results are attributed to a blend of methodology, technology and mindset change.

This hospital engaged Care Logistics, an innovative patient throughput company that wraps proprietary methodology around a hospital operating system. This enables hospitals to flow all patients simultaneously at their best possible rate with respect to length of stay, service times, quality, safety and resource consumption. The resulting real-time data and dynamically prioritized tasks across all departments, from admission through discharge, provides the basis for a hospital mindset change from optimizing parts, to optimizing the whole on a journey to zero -- zero errors, zero process defects and zero rework.

Edward Deming said that organizations couldn't manage what they are not able to measure. The real-time patient throughput information provided by the Care Logistics hospital operating system provides the information that you need to make sure that you are managing your patient throughput as efficiently and effectively as possible. Some would say that when it comes to current hospital operations, the Flintstones and the Jetsons live in the same building. Hospitals have advanced diagnostics and surgical techniques, but burn up their phone lines and sneakers running around trying to coordinate patient throughput. It does not have to be that way.

Care Logistics' hospital operating system provides the platform for simultaneous access to the location and status of patients and resources, as well as the decision support necessary to alleviate throughput conflicts. Just as modern navigation systems optimize our commute times while adjusting to real time traffic conditions as we drive, Care Logistics optimizes the flow for all patients simultaneously. With these new levels of efficiency, hospitals who adopt Care Logistics' integrated approach to patient throughput have the ability to estimate a patient's length of stay, and predictably meet the targeted date of discharge goal.

When everyone has a comprehensive and immediate view of activities, priorities and resources, in other words, they're all on the same page. Then, healthcare organizations achieve sustainable operational excellence.

The result is that throughput and capacity challenges are minimized, and bottom line performance improves substantially. The recipe for success is an innovative blend of methodology, technology and mindset change. With this combination, breakthrough improvement has been proven and is achievable at your hospital.