Hospitals, Health IT

Colorado’s UCHealth taps startup LeanTaaS’ app for OR optimization

The app is part of a larger effort in which LeanTaaS taps into non-sensitive electronic health records data, then builds predictive models to forecast usage patterns and allocate OR time efficiently.

Dr. Bhargav Mistry (right), a transplant surgeon for Sanford Health, prepares Sgt. Francisco Raatz's healthy kidney for transplant into his battle buddy, Spc. John Chase, on Sept. 27, 2011, at Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D.

Paint this picture: A surgeon, who is scheduled to perform surgery in six weeks realizes that he will be on vacation at that time. Instead of making a time-consuming phone call or writing an email, he uses an app on his mobile phone to inform the scheduler and to offer up his block of time. Another surgeon messages back and instantly reserves the block, helping to improve OR optimization.

That’s the thought behind iQueue for Operating Rooms, a newly launched app from LeanTaaS, a Silicon Valley-based lean and predictive analytics startup. Surgeons at University of Colorado Hospital are testing iQueue in a pilot program with LeanTaaS.

The app is part of a larger effort in which LeanTaaS taps into non-sensitive electronic health records data, then builds predictive models to forecast usage patterns and allocate OR time efficiently. University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) has been working with LeanTaaS since July 2015, initially to increase efficiency at its chemotherapy infusion centers

“We always had the bolus of treatments in the middle of the day. We knew we had to get better at getting patients through the system, reducing their wait times, and not have as much overtime from a nursing perspective to accommodate patients,” said UCHealth CIO Steve Hess. “LeanTaaS helped us analyze data differently than we could ever do ourselves.”

Data from the health system’s Epic Systems EHR is securely transferred to LeanTaaS, which applies machine learning. “They can crunch our data and produce learning from that data that we can’t do ourselves. It’s a combination of advanced learning, machine learning, and computing algorithms,” Hess said.

“The information they provided allowed us to change our templates in our Epic scheduling system to do a better job of distributing appointments, types of appointments and duration of past appointments, in a much more efficient manner,” said Hess.

With iQueue for Operating Rooms, UCHealth is initially focusing on 38 ORs at its University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora. “Across UC Health we have 109 ORs. We are proving out the concept with the Colorado Hospital ORs, and plan on expanding to the rest of UC Health over the next year,” said Hess.

The smartphone pilot makes OR utilization management mobile. “All surgeons in the pilot at UC received an automatic message on their phone showing them how their utilization for last week and last month has gone,” said Mohan Giridharadas, founder and CEO of LeanTaaS. “Every single Monday morning they receive a message; It will help them be aware of how well they are using their time,” Giridharadas said.

Administrators can receive suggestions back from surgeons on how to make the block schedules more intelligent, such as which doctors should get more or less time in the OR. “We’re making the schedules more intelligent so the utilization goes up even more,” Giridharadas said.

“Over time, the administration can put incentives into it. They can release that block only to high- performing surgeons first. They can put in filters and when a block comes up, they can say, ‘Let’s give it to our best surgeons first.’ If no one takes it in the first hour, they can give the block to the next group,” he said.

Here’s a video from LeanTaaS demonstrating iQueue for Operating Rooms:

Photo: Flickr user North Dakota National Guard

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