As several of the BEST Initiatives wrap up, the focus has been on transition and sustainability. Revenue Cycle and Supply Chain workstreams have seen great financial success during the last year, which has allowed Alameda Health System to better support our patients, community, and our people. With increased revenues and decreased expenses, the savings has been redirected to ensure we keep key patient services needed within our community.
Revenue Cycle’s success is attributed to multiple workflow optimization efforts across Patient Access, Coding and Revenue Integrity, Care Management, and Patient Financial Services. The Revenue Cycle team reviewed a detailed transition plan with AHS leaders to ensure transition of key project activities and continued performance improvement. Key meeting forums and workgroups have been successfully transitioned, leaders are collaborating on action plans for resolving issues based on metric research, and feedback/communication is regularly shared with team members.
Supply Chain saw successful cost savings through a multi-phase process of opportunity identification, charter and governance formation, and an initial implementation phase. The team is currently in an ongoing benefit implementation and transition phase. They are addressing several key principles that similar to that of the Revenue Cycle, including meeting accountability, metric/system accountability, contract and vendor management, risk/barrier escalation, and the continued identification of additional opportunity areas. There are plans to continue pursuing additional
A key component to creating sustainable change is ensuring an environment where team members feel psychologically safe. For someone to transition from current state to future state, they need to feel emotionally safe in their work environment. Safety allows them to stretch their comfort zones and take the risk of trying something in a new way. For the change to sustain, they need to feel comfortable speaking up when they see an opportunity to improve things or have a different perspective on approaching a problem. Leaders play a key role in establishing psychological safety for their teams, and leaders within the BEST Initiatives all had opportunities to participate in sessions focused on leading through change and increasing psychological safety for their teams.
All of these transition and training efforts are key steps in ensuring we continue to see success in these workstreams and sustain the positive impact to our patient, team members, and community.