In the latest rankings by U.S. News and World Report, Valley Children’s Hospital consistently stands out as one of the premier pediatric facilities in the nation, recognized for excellence in 10 specialties, including oncology and pulmonology. Located in the heart of California, Valley Children’s operates multiple clinics across the region, including a state-of-the-art Ambulatory Surgery Center.
Like many healthcare institutions today, Valley Children’s faces several ongoing challenges, including:
- Rising patient expectations – As patients become more informed about their healthcare options, they demand higher-quality services from providers.
- Workforce engagement and shortages – With limited staffing, it’s crucial for providers to keep their teams motivated, as low morale can adversely affect patient care.
- Equitable care – Ensuring that all patients receive top-quality treatment, irrespective of their background, is a priority.
- Resource constraints – Caregivers often feel the pressure to care for more patients while managing limited resources, a situation exacerbated by crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Cost management – Organizations are tasked with finding ways to lower medical costs for patients without compromising care quality.
In this article, I will explore the challenges Valley Children’s encountered while standardizing healthcare practices and the resulting improvements in patient outcomes.
The Challenge of Standardizing Healthcare Practices
As part of their Quality Improvement (QI) initiatives, Valley Children’s aimed to unify healthcare practices to ensure that all providers adhered to the same treatment and care protocols. However, some resistance was encountered along the way.
“It’s essential to contextualize our efforts within the culture of modern healthcare,” remarks Dr. Thomas Walker, Director of Continuous Improvement at Valley Children’s. “Many physicians, myself included, can be hesitant to embrace cultural shifts. However, they must grasp the impact and costs associated with the care they deliver and collaborate with administrators to tackle these challenges.”
In 2019, Valley Children’s began utilizing AdaptX, an Adaptive Clinical Management™ solution available in AWS Marketplace. This AI-driven platform extracts and analyzes real-time data related to healthcare procedures and patient outcomes from electronic medical records (EMR). By comparing this data against AdaptX’s control charts, caregivers can continuously assess clinical trial results to refine treatment plans.
Enhancing Patient Outcomes with AdaptX
With the support of AdaptX, Valley Children’s has achieved notable improvements:
- Eliminating opioids in surgical procedures
Initially focusing on tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies, the Ambulatory Surgery Center aimed to phase out opioid medications in surgeries. Providers utilized AdaptX to gather data on:- Post-operative pain levels on a scale of 1 to 10
- The number of patients requiring additional pain relief
- Average recovery room stay duration
- Complications that necessitated further surgery
By monitoring these results, caregivers identified effective lower-cost, non-opioid alternatives, enhancing the patient experience and minimizing opioid-related side effects. Thus far, Valley Children’s has completed over 30,000 surgeries without opioids.
- Maximizing surgical capacity
In 2020, Valley Children’s dealt with a significant backlog of surgeries due to the pandemic and ongoing renovations. Seeking to enhance operational efficiency, QI researchers employed AdaptX to track daily caregiver schedules in the surgical unit. This data enabled them to identify and train providers demonstrating time-efficient practices, leading to a notable increase in monthly case handling and a reduction in overtime. Collectively, these improvements are projected to save approximately 200,000 minutes and $4 to $5 million annually. - Promoting racial equity
Utilizing AdaptX’s analytical tools, a physician at the Ambulatory Surgery Center performed a self-assessment to pinpoint racial disparities in patient care. The findings indicated that African American and Hispanic patients experienced higher rates of post-operative complications following tonsillectomy. A dedicated team developed strategies to address these inequities, including revised post-operative instructions featuring visual aids and hydration guidelines.
Dr. Walker has harnessed AdaptX to identify areas where standardizing practices could mitigate disparities. By examining anesthesia care results, he discovered that African American patients at the hospital’s main campus had higher rates of post-operative nausea compared to others. At the Ambulatory Surgery Center, administering two anti-nausea medications post-surgery has been standard practice, but this was not previously the case at the Seattle campus.
Data Analysis Fuels Quality Improvement
Before adopting data analytics, Valley Children’s relied on outdated QI methodologies, completing just three Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles over four years. However, after integrating AdaptX in 2019, they achieved five PDSA cycles within a year and now complete a cycle roughly every five months. This transition has empowered caregivers to accelerate clinical process changes, leading to significant improvements in patient outcomes.
“The core principle of enhancing care at Valley Children’s is standardizing our practices,” states Dr. Walker. “In my perspective, it’s the ultimate goal for any physician aiming to improve clinical practices and outcomes. Without stable standard processes, making meaningful improvements becomes nearly impossible. Standardizing practices creates a reliable foundation for further learning and enhancements.”
Next Steps
To discover how to elevate clinician outcomes and quality of care through software and services available in AWS Marketplace, consider exploring the webinar on enhancing clinician experiences with real-time data solutions. It features insights from Dr. Thomas Walker and is hosted by Michael Leonard, Global Healthcare Lead at AWS Marketplace.
Conclusion
In this discussion, I examined the challenges Valley Children’s faced in standardizing healthcare practices, highlighting the substantial improvements achieved through these efforts. For further insights on this topic, check out this article, where you’ll find valuable information from leading authorities. Additionally, if you’re looking for a community to engage with, this Reddit thread provides excellent resources.
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