{"id":432302,"date":"2021-05-11T05:43:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T12:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&p=432302"},"modified":"2024-03-27T05:20:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T12:20:35","slug":"healthcare-delivery-optimization","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/healthcare-delivery-optimization","title":{"rendered":"Better Routing Leads to Better Healthcare"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[731,369792,134062],"tags":[209902,641,473102,338542],"department":[476822],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-432302","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-location-intelligence","category-transportation-2","tag-healthcare","tag-logistics","tag-operational-efficiency","tag-route-optimization","department-data-and-ai"],"acf":{"short_description":"A leading health services company applies location intelligence to an age-old business challenge in its home-visit program.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"For years, one health services company\u2019s team of nurse practitioners and physician assistants had been criss-crossing each other on highways and city streets. They were making home visits to members of a health program focused on providing preventive care. Nationwide, more than 1,000 practitioners carried out in-home medical exams for the plan\u2019s members, racking up millions of car miles a year en route."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Article snapshot:<\/strong> For one leading health services company, route optimization is solving the perennial traveling salesman problem. The result isn\u2019t just savings of time and money\u2014including 2,100 driving miles in a pilot program. It\u2019s also employee engagement and better patient care.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The zig-zagging was a drain on the team\u2019s efficiency. Clinicians found themselves bumping into one another in apartment building stairwells, having come from opposite ends of town to cover two different members in the same complex. Then they headed back out in opposite directions.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe [clinicians] had often noted the challenges of passing each other during the day,\u201d explains the program\u2019s regional director of clinical operations.\r\n\r\nThe company faced a modern-day version of the classic traveling salesman problem: how does a business deliver services or goods across a geographic area as efficiently as possible? Multiply that question by the hundreds of thousands of member visits the program completed in 2020 alone, and it becomes both a burning issue to solve and a challenge ripe for location intelligence<\/a>.\r\n

Route Optimization Could Improve Member, Employee Satisfaction<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe routing challenges<\/a> clinicians faced each day weren\u2019t just inconvenient, they were eating up valuable time. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants often felt rushed as they moved between appointments, and were limited in the number of cases they could cover in a typical 10-hour workday.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s a familiar challenge for executives in sectors as diverse as retail, restaurants, home services, and logistics. Before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, consumers were already embracing home delivery in large numbers. Now, store closures and a stay-at-home mentality have accelerated the shift, sending retail e-commerce sales up 28 percent<\/a> in 2020.\r\n\r\nBusinesses that rely on location intelligence are positioned to thrive in this new reality. An IDC Canada survey showed that organizations with mature location analysis <\/a>practices saw a 25 percent improvement across key business metrics over a two-year period. Whether a company is moving people, transporting goods, or providing services, the geographic information system (GIS)<\/a> technology that creates location intelligence is often at the heart of efficiency improvements.\r\n\r\nAt the health services company, the leadership team knew that smarter routing of home visits would do more than decrease costs. If done right, it could give clinicians more time with members, reduce cancellations, establish more predictable appointment times, and improve already strong member satisfaction scores.\r\n\r\nThe move could also have a positive effect on an employee\u2019s work-life balance. Well-trained clinicians were already in high-demand before COVID-19. In fact, overall employment of nurse practitioners, anesthetists, and midwives<\/a> has been projected to grow by 45 percent from 2019 to 2029. By creating better member and practitioner experiences, providers can cultivate a working environment that helps attract and retain top talent in tight markets.\r\n\r\nThe real question for company executives wasn\u2019t whether to create a more efficient network to support exceptional patient care and employee experiences, but how."},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":432292,"text":"I consider health [to have] its own unique place in terms of logistics. It\u2019s a trusted relationship between our clinicians and our members. . . . We want to honor those kinds of trusted relationships when we build this capability.","author_name":"VP of Analytics ","author_profession_organization":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Using Data to Transform Human Experiences for the Better<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nFor the health services company, the solution had to marry the right technology with an understanding of exactly what the program is designed to deliver: proactive, preventative health care for real people.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe are not a delivery product,\u201d says the company\u2019s vice president of analytics. \u201cWe focus on human interactions, so the team studied how to improve logistics without compromising an exceptional member experience.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe result was a pilot route optimization program that the company rolled out in Texas in late summer 2019. Focused on the program\u2019s logistics strategy, the pilot aimed to improve both the bottom and\u2014importantly\u2014front lines for several dozen local clinicians and the members they serve.\r\n\r\nWorking together, the analytics and program teams developed a process to feed scheduling data into GIS route optimization algorithms, which generated the most efficient distribution of appointments and routes, including which clinicians should visit each member.\r\n\r\nFor the program\u2019s front-line workers, the impact was huge. Dispatchers sent optimized route plans to a clinician\u2019s tablet or smartphone, and the clinician benefited from the efficiency of smarter routes and shorter drive times.\r\n\r\nStill, while GIS has excelled at planning everything from John Deere\u2019s dealer locations<\/a> to maintenance work on FedEx planes<\/a>, the home visits program had traits that traditional use cases did not. The team needed enough flexibility in its route optimization solution to satisfy all the nuances of member care.\r\n\r\nSome members prefer either a male or female clinician. Others request the same clinician they saw last visit, or one who speaks a certain language. Those prerequisites culled about 25 percent of possible appointments from the pilot. The analytics team set to work using GIS algorithms to analyze the rest.\r\n\r\nThat required tweaks like holding off on announcing which nurse practitioner or physician assistant would cover an appointment until much closer to the date.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis allowed the GIS algorithms to wait for all\u2014or at least most\u2014appointments to be scheduled before committing the assigned APCs,\u201d explains the analytics team\u2019s data scientist and GIS analyst. \u201cThat way the algorithms had as much information as possible on schedule adjustments and cancellations before making a decision.\u201d\r\n\r\nDuring the pilot program, analysts manually verified the proposed routes to ensure that no patient preference, however subtle, was overlooked\u2014a process that would eventually need to be automated in order to scale."},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":432312,"text":"It was certainly exciting. . . creating a solution that our clinical team has been asking for, allowing us to serve our members better while helping our clinicians have more efficient days.","author_name":"GIS Analyst","author_profession_organization":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Starting Local, Thinking National, and Building Momentum<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nBy February 2020, the route optimization<\/a> pilot had helped program managers reassign more than 300 appointments along 200 routes, and the GIS-optimized schedules had saved clinicians over 2,000 miles and 45 driving hours in just five months. That amounted to a 10 percent decrease in drive time across the routes changed, and a 12 percent drop in drive distance\u2014a substantial cost savings for the relatively small initial group."},{"acf_fc_layout":"form","form_type":"aside","form_position":"Right","form_title":"THE ESRI BRIEF","form_desc":"A biweekly email connecting senior executives and business leaders with thought-provoking articles on location intelligence and critical technology trends.","form_button_label":"Sign up now","form_content":"https:\/\/go.pardot.com\/l\/82202\/2017-10-12\/jw1bmb","form_tag":"low-commitment-form\/sign-up-form"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The regional program director says that when routes are more efficient and days run smoother, clinicians provide an even higher level of service for a program that is already well regarded by members. When members can consistently rely on predicted arrival times and see their clinicians working without rushing, it makes a real difference in the member\u2019s day. It also empowers clinicians to focus not simply on making the appointment but making the most of it.\r\n\r\nThe nurse practitioners and physician assistants say shorter routes between visits allow them to repurpose saved minutes into member care, according to the director. \u201cThey can spend that time with our members ensuring a high-quality exam, teaching, and addressing any of the member\u2019s needs.\u201d\r\n\r\nThat supports a better working environment at a time when healthcare professionals are stretched thin. In the director\u2019s words, the optimization program is a way \u201cto help our employees have a better work-life balance and then give that time back to our members.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe results became a promising precursor to the company\u2019s next business challenge: how far could they extend those savings and improvements by applying GIS across thousands of clinicians, and millions of appointments, nationwide?\r\n

As the Pilot Proved Itself, the World Shifted Gears<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nBuoyed by the pilot\u2019s progress, the company was poised to expand the program nationally. Then the world ground to a halt. The company primarily serves Medicare members, and their age made them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. In deference to safety protocols, program directors temporarily prioritized virtual appointments over in-home visits.\r\n\r\nThe analytics team used the time to study the results from the pilot stage and ensure they were ready to expand GIS route optimization across the program nationally, which they did in Q4 of 2020. The analytics VP says they\u2019re now well positioned to tackle what many call a care gap that\u2019s widening under the weight of a strained healthcare system.\r\n\r\nThe team has created processes that will make GIS-optimized routes feasible on a much larger scale. And they\u2019re incorporating stakeholder feedback every step of the way. Most importantly, they\u2019re working to keep their members and clinicians at the heart of the location intelligence solution.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis program has been proven to reduce hospitalizations and increase visits to the primary care provider, closing the loop to ensure once we leave, that journey continues onto that healthier life,\u201d the regional director says. \u201cBeing out there in the home is really important and relevant right now.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd it\u2019s likely to become even more relevant as the company expands its use of location intelligence to support ever higher levels of member care."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nRoute Optimization Improves Healthcare Delivery for Home Visits<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Route optimization created by GIS technology helps solve the riddle of getting service providers to appointments more efficiently.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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