Scott & White Healthcare Improves Incident Tracking

Leading Risk Management Program Supports Timely, Accurate Reporting and Powerful Trend Analysis

Scott & White Healthcare, a nonprofit, fully integrated healthcare system serving 29,000 square miles in central Texas, is on the fast track. Over the past five years, the organization has expanded from two hospitals to a total of 12 owned, affiliated or managed hospital sites with additional facilities planned.

That growth put increased demands on its risk management program, leading the department to seek ways to streamline its practices for risk reporting, tracking and analysis. The organization implemented CSC’s RISKMASTER software nine years ago to move processing and data storage online. When it needed to transform its paper-based general liability reporting process, the company upgraded to a newer Web-enabled version that integrates multiple processes including claims and risk management, reporting and business intelligence.

On-the-Spot Incident Reporting

The software’s Web-based smart forms enabled the organization to replace its paper forms used for reporting adverse events with an online version that can be accessed throughout the healthcare system by numerous employees. The new form ensures that all fields required for various incidents are filled out. Incident information is transferred directly to RISKMASTER and immediately available to the risk management team.

“Timeliness is a major consideration in our business,” said Kelly Hinton, assistant general counsel at Scott & White Healthcare. “This new form allows us to get real-time data from our front-line staff for all types of adverse events, including those that involve potential injury to a patient or visitor.”

“RISKMASTER has allowed us to put risk management personnel in our regional facilities, and not just at corporate headquarters,” Hinton added. “We all have access to the same data and the same information and we can really be proactive out there at each of our facilities.”

Improved Workers’ Comp Support

The software also helps the risk management team effectively track all staff member accidents, which was a growing challenge with staff doubling over the last five years and the organization’s decision to bring all support services staff in-house. The support staff includes functions such as housekeeping, laundry and food services that generally have greater risk exposure.

“Despite bringing back this riskier employee class, our number of incidents has remained absolutely steady,” Hinton noted. “RISKMASTER has really supported our workers’ comp program and allowed us to keep costs down for our self-insured program.”

“It’s all about having the data at your fingertips to track the staff member incidents,” she added. “It’s easy to know, for example, which nursing units report the most over-exertion injuries, and then we can go to them and provide additional back safety training or specialized patient transfer equipment.”

Supporting the Risk Manager of the Year

Before RISKMASTER, the organization’s risk management personnel had to spend time inputting data from paper reports into the system. Now, the staff is spending more time on tracking, trend analysis and risk prevention, aided by the RISKMASTER Business Intelligence reporting tool.

“We can customize the fields, so we can track absolutely any data element that we choose to, and if we can record that data, then we can analyze it,” Hinton explained.

The robust RISKMASTER technology supports Scott & White Healthcare’s emphasis on risk prevention, which has led to the company being ranked in the lowest 25 percent of Texas hospitals for loss cost per bed. Further reflecting that success, the organization’s director of Risk Management Lisa L. Havens was named a 2011 Risk Manager of the Year by Business Insurance magazine.

Operating as a Team

According to Hinton, CSC’s technical support group has been an “essential” ingredient in the success of the RISKMASTER implementation because the organization doesn’t have resources available in-house. Some of the risk management team’s suggestions for improvements are even being incorporated into new versions of RISKMASTER.

“CSC’s staff is knowledgeable and motivated, so if I call and report a technical support issue, they can usually provide a fix pretty quickly,” said Hinton. “And for most of them a workaround isn’t acceptable; they really want to know what the problem is and to correct it.”