Performance Improvement

Performance improvement is more than cost cutting. BDC Advisors takes a broad view of performance improvement, including revenue opportunities, operating efficiency, and the internal systems through which objectives are set and performance is measured, managed, and rewarded. When necessary, we balance achieving short-term improvements with the longer-term, “game changing” strategic moves necessary to sustain performance improvement into the future.

Performance improvement study questions vary based on the nature of the client organization and its customized performance issues. Examples might include:

• What would constitute long-term success in the market, and how would it be measured?
• What are the short-term and long-term cash needs required to meet debt service obligations and capital investment requirements in order to achieve sustainability?
• How is the market likely to evolve over the next five years with respect to products, reimbursement levels, and competition? What are the implications?
• What are the system’s current delivery capabilities, and how can they be configured to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in view of the likely evolution of the market?
• What is the optimal size of clinical capabilities? (teaching and research for academic medical centers)
• What are the optimal programs and services to which scarce resources should be allocated?
• How can payer contracts be (re)negotiated to achieve greater reimbursement?
• How can costs be reduced while sustaining clinical quality and appropriately supporting growth opportunities?
• How can the medical staff and physician organization(s’) structure, compensation, and incentives be aligned to support the strategic objectives of the health system?
• What infrastructure resources and management processes are required to establish and sustain a performance oriented culture?
• Do planning, budgeting, and management processes promote or inhibit alignment between the medical staff, hospital, and others?
• What bold actions will unify and galvanize the organization?

Examples:

Midwestern Health System - Clinical Performance Improvement

BDC Advisors evaluated and restructured medical management for a 7-hospital health system in Missouri. The project culminated in the development of a clinical performance improvement department and over $4 million savings in medical management within year one. The health system became the first winner of the Malcolm Baldrige award in the healthcare category in 2003.

New England Academic Health System - Performance Management

BDC Advisors assisted this three-hospital system with a comprehensive evaluation and renewal of its performance management processes. The project included a reconfiguration of the senior leadership team, its agenda and meeting process, refinement of strategic and business planning processes, adoption of a "balanced scorecard" objective setting and measurement reporting process, deployment of a system-wide performance improvement methodology, and augmentation of the system's leadership development programs.

Northeast Academic Medical Center - Financial Turnaround and Strategic Repositioning

BDC Advisors supported this client in achieving short-term cost reductions and revenue enhancements necessary to sustain operations, while simultaneously exploring options for long term repositioning. The project involved operations improvement focused on length of stay and staffing reductions, managed care contract analysis and renegotiation leading to both short-term rate relief and long-term improvements in contract terms, restructuring of the clinical faculty practice plan to reduce cost and improve organizational alignment, and development of a longer-term service line and market strategy.