Success Story - SCL Health Lutheran
Reduced inpatient LOS by 0.2-0.8 day through hospital-wide discharge orchestration
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0.2-0.8 day LOS decrease across units
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>$2M projected cost savings per year
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90%+ nudge response rate
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87% patients assigned estimated date of discharge (EDD)
About SCL Health Lutheran Medical Center
- Community-based, acute-care hospital in Wheat Ridge, Colorado
- 282 beds and over 11,000 annual discharges
- 2017 “Most Wired Health Systems” by Hospitals & Health Networks, a publication of AHA
- 2019 America’s 50 Best Hospitals™ by Healthgrades
- American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) recognition of ICUs with Silver Beacon Awards for Excellence
SCL needed to hardwire processes in order to sustain gains from process improvements.
SCL Lutheran Medical Center began their lean journey in 2013. After implementing numerous process improvements, SCL was achieving meaningful reductions in LOS.
But leadership knew these gains would be hard to sustain over time by continuing to rely solely on behaviors and heroic efforts of frontline teams.
When SCL Lutheran identified 279 manual steps in their discharge process, leadership knew it was time for a radical, new approach.
Everyone always says ‘discharge planning starts at admission.’ With this, it’s real.
Now, teams turn to one source for structured, efficient discharge planning rounds.
Discharge planning rounds were already a part of SCL Lutheran’s standard work — but preparation to compile information took valuable time and discussions were unstructured.
Teams now see a “night and day difference” with rounds by using Qventus. With information automatically compiled, care managers save over 30 minutes per day preparing for rounds.
Providers consistently set estimated discharge dates (EDDs) for patients. And teams have a common language around discharge planning.
With automated coordination, SCL ancillaries prioritize orders in real-time.
Physical Therapy — geographically scattered throughout the hospital — now can pick up new orders during the day and re-prioritize assignments around discharge goals. The volume of same day PT turnarounds has meaningfully improved.
Respiratory Therapy now has line of sight into patients with oxygen needs much earlier in their stay, so they can start therapy right away. RT no longer becomes a bottleneck for on-time discharge, which improves the patient experience.
MRI and IR have also reduced turnaround times.
It’s like an orchestra falling into place. I like when things just work.
SCL Lutheran has continued to reduce LOS in ways they never thought possible.
Not only did SCL Lutheran sustain the LOS reductions from their years of process improvement work — but Qventus has helped them further reduce LOS by 0.2-0.8 day across units.
This translates to more than $2M in cost savings per year from their initial deployment alone.
This allows our hospitalists and nurses to practice better clinical care, because it equips them with better information at just the right time.