Streamlining Operations at Clarian Health

There's something in the air at Clarian Health-a new people-mover that will soon provide convenient, enclosed bridges among the organization's many healthcare facilities. It's not the first time Clarian's hospitals have been brought together for the sake of increased efficiency. Back in 1997, when Indiana University (IU) Hospital, Riley Hospital for Children, and Methodist Hospital combined to form Clarian Health, a single solution was needed to unite facilities data from all three organizations. With ARCHIBUS, Clarian achieved this goal, while increasing the accuracy with which it manages the hospitals' combined space.

More Space, More Opportunities
The task of merging data from the three organizations fell to the division of Design and Construction, part of the Facilities department at Methodist Hospital. "After the consolidation, our department's responsibility expanded to all three hospitals," says David Doell, Manager of Design and Construction at Clarian Health. "We went from managing 2.2 million square feet to approximately 4 million square feet, practically overnight." The department had to add to its staff in order to take on all this new space (it has since added another 1 million square feet of space), but even with the extra help, the department was losing its ability to track space usage within Clarian's many departments. "Manually tracking this kind of information, as we had been doing, just wasn't working. It had become unmanageable," says Doell.

The sudden addition of so much square footage also threatened the accuracy of the space figures that Clarian submits to Medicare. Since these figures are closely tied to reimbursement, it is critical that they are accurate. "We needed a program to track space and Medicare reporting, as well as to identify where vacant space was," says Doell. After seeing ARCHIBUS at a seminar, he had found the solution he needed. With the help of facility management consultant BSA FM in Indianapolis, he introduced the system's capabilities to Clarian's operations.

Saving Time and Increasing Accuracy
An automated system also helped Clarian keep better track of the shared use of space, which varied from hospital to hospital. At Methodist, for example, there was little shared space. At IU and Riley, however, the faculty physicians were not necessarily employed by Clarian. "We had a lot of space that was leased out, or space that was being used by two departments," says Doell. "That space has to be prorated for cost purposes, and it's not always an even 50-50 split. ARCHIBUS helps us figure out the proration of space." This method is in marked contrast to the past, when a staff member would manually color areas of a printout to indicate shared spaces, and physically draw in lines to represent new construction projects. "Now we add this information to our AutoCAD drawings in ARCHIBUS, which automatically reflects all our changes," says Doell. "Having accurate, up-to-date data is a great leap forward."

Accurate Information for TJC Audits
The importance of accurate records can't be overestimated when it comes to satisfying the requirements of TJC, the U.S. healthcare accreditation agency. During a TJC audit, the Facilities department is required to provide accurate drawings and documentation on the organization's facilities, from both a space and systems perspective. This includes being able to produce records that show where valves and other safety equipment are located throughout Clarian's many buildings. "If we can't produce these records during TJC inspections, we can be issued a citation. If we get enough citations it could jeopardize our accreditation and therefore our Medicare reimbursement," says Doell. "ARCHIBUS provides the base we need to extract accurate information about our facilities."

The information captured and maintained in ARCHIBUS also helps Clarian save time and money on capital projects. "For every construction project we do, we can give the architects electronic drawings, saving them the time it takes to perform field surveys," says Doell. Since drawings are updated electronically, he and his staff can easily print new configurations for the maintenance staff. "Pulling out 17 sets of prints to track the progress of a single project was just too complicated," he says. "Now we can just reprint mylar copies for the staff to reference." Clarian also uses ARCHIBUS to track the capacity and condition of its parking garages.

Setting Standards and Benchmarking
The information kept in ARCHIBUS has proven valuable to other departments at Clarian, too. "We are bombarded with requests," says Doell. "When departments such as Environmental Services want to achieve increased efficiencies, they need to benchmark themselves against other hospitals. They use our data to do this." The information also helps departments plan for future consolidations. Within the three hospitals that make up Clarian Health, there are a lot of duplicate departments, such as Radiation and Lab. "Some of these duplicate departments are considering consolidation in hopes of increasing their efficiency levels," says Doell. "We can provide information and drawings to the people at the labs, for example, that shows the extent of the lab, with color drawings of lab subsections." This feature lets departments understand how much space and what type of space they would need if they were to consolidate their services with the corresponding department at another of the Clarian Health hospitals. "This kind of information-sharing is helpful. Duplicate departments can see how they're using space and strategize their consolidation," says Doell.

Future Plans
For the future, Doell and his team have plans to increase the extent of information that is tracked within ARCHBUS/FM. "It's tough in an organization of this size—which is now close to 5 million square feet—to keep track of everyone and their whereabouts," he says. "The Human Resources, Business Development, and IS departments want to be able to share their information, too, and link it to specific departments or individuals within departments." For example, Doell is considering introducing a Web-based employee locator feature to help staff find each other in the many buildings on Clarian campuses.

Uniting Departments Physically and Metaphorically
All these efforts are in addition to the appropriately-named people-mover project that Doell and his team are working on. After managing the actual construction of the people-mover, Doell and his team will be tracking the stations and overhead walkways using ARCHIBUS. "The people-mover will be a godsend, letting us travel back and forth between buildings instead of having to get in the car and drive," says Doell. "A thirty-minute trip will be possible in just five. It will also bring us closer together, so we feel more like one unit." It's the perfect metaphor for the work that united Clarian's facilities information under one system.