Analytics to Advance Patient Care

Embracing tomorrow’s healthcare challenges with analytics-driven personnel planning.

Karolinska University Hospital is driving a major transformation to implement a healthcare model that can deliver world-class care at an appropriate, sustainable cost level. To tackle the challenge, advanced analytics helps predict tomorrow’s healthcare needs and plan the people and resources required to deliver outstanding, cost-effective care.

Business Challenge

As the cost of care rises, efficiency is a must for hospitals worldwide. How can Karolinska University Hospital detect long-term healthcare trends and deploy human and financial resources accordingly?

Transformation

The hospital uses what-if scenarios to understand the potential future impact of changes to factors such as market conditions, ER admission rates and demographics, and optimize its planning processes.

Results

Helps plan the personnel required to deliver high-quality care to an aging population

Reveals treatment options that can improve patient outcomes and cut operational costs

Identifies new ways of working to improve care experiences and staffing optimization

Business Challenge History

Tackling the rising cost of care

As one of the largest university hospitals in Europe, and Sweden’s largest single center of medical research, Karolinska University Hospital is rapidly pushing forward the frontiers of medicine. However, like many providers across Europe, it faces significant challenges as healthcare costs continue to rise.

“We can treat many conditions far more effectively today than we could even a decade ago,” said Pär Adrell, Process Manager and Controller – Personnel Budget and Resource Management at Karolinska University Hospital. “Not only is the hospital saving more people from cancer, it is also at the forefront of creating new therapies for conditions such as infertility. And we are working on innovative diagnostic tools and investigating entirely new treatment areas.”

Claes Ruth, Head of Planning and Strategy at Karolinska University Hospital, continued: “Stockholm is one of the fastest-growing urban areas in Sweden, and we see patient admissions will only increase over time. At the turn of the new millennium, healthcare spending accounted for only seven percent of Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP). Steady advancements in medical technology and an aging population have caused that figure rise to a massive 11.2% of GDP today, according to statistics from the OECD.”

Karolinska University Hospital is at present adapting to the Stockholm County Council’s strategy for a network-based healthcare system that enables improved capabilities to provide care at the right level, right degree of specialization and at the right cost.

“Specialization will enable us to direct our limited resources to deliver the best outcomes for patients,” Adrell explained. “To move towards a specialized role, it is vital to plan and budget effectively to ensure we have the right personnel to deliver the highest standard of care. To achieve this goal, we needed to understand the true cost of all of our treatments.”

Ruth commented: “Like most other hospitals globally, Karolinska University Hospital was organized vertically by department, and we attributed costs at the department level. However, because patients move horizontally between multiple departments during the course of their care, it was not always obvious what the actual health results were, how spending should be allocated, or how cost-efficient the process was.

“It was previously very complicated to get a good overview and governance of outcomes across units when calculating the total cost of care per patient (CPP). The sheer quantity of data—and the complexity of the connections between different datasets—meant that it was not possible to turn information into insight. When we started the process of transforming from a department-centric to a patient-centric environment, we looked for a way to integrate vertical and horizontal analysis and planning capabilities for the organization.”

“We predict that our new way of working will help us to reduce waiting times for treatments and diagnostics.”

Delivering outstanding services to a growing population

“Our resources are limited, and we need to be extremely diligent in how we plan, budget and assign our personnel,” Ruth commented. “We serve around 1.7 million patients every year, of which 60% come in via the ER and 70% will need an x-ray. Even a 10% increase in ER admissions can have a substantial impact on the rest of the hospital.

“This type of analysis is extremely important given the demographic trends that we’re seeing across Sweden. We increasingly use our tools to analyze and simulate, and TM1 plays an essential part in those tasks.”

By identifying simple-but-costly procedures that could be delivered more effectively by local health centers, Karolinska University Hospital can specialize on its core competences and boost cost-efficiency.

“Specialization will enable us to streamline our operations, which will mean a better experience for our patients,” said Adrell. “We predict that our new way of working will help us to reduce waiting times for treatments and diagnostics, identify economies of scale, and determine the best and most cost-effective treatment options for our patients.

“One good example is new medicines for chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. Although relatively expensive compared to older classes of drugs, in many cases these new medications enable patients to defer or even avoid the need for surgery. Our TM1 model enables us to factor in the costs of treating conditions with medication versus surgery, and plan our personnel requirements accordingly.”

Ruth concluded: “Effective human resource planning is vital to ensure that we have the right skills in the right place at the right time to treat our patients, and that beds and operating rooms are available when we need them.”

About Karolinska University Hospital

Based in Stockholm county, Sweden, Karolinska University Hospital (Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset) is one of Europe’s largest university hospitals. Together with the Karolinska Institute, the hospital is at the forefront of medical development in Sweden. Healthcare, research and education make up equally important parts of Karolinska University Hospital’s work to lengthen and enhance people’s lives. Every year, the hospital treats more than 1.7 million people, and in 2016 it opened an ultra-modern care facility in Solna, Sweden.

Solution components

• Cognos TM1
• HC: Analytics and Reporting