Willamette Valley Medical Center Selects Acorn’s Performance Analyzer™ to Identify True Costs and Drive Performance Improvement

Acorn’s healthcare solution provides visibility into the total cost of care across the healthcare organization

HOUSTON--()--Acorn today announced that Oregon-based healthcare provider, Willamette Valley Medical Center, has successfully implemented Acorn’s Performance Analyzer™ solution across its entire state-of-the-art healthcare facility. Selected to identify true costs and drive performance improvement, Acorn’s time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC), measures the true cost – based on time and consumption – which allows for a reduction in total costs while improving the quality of care.

According to Harvard Business Review authors Robert Kaplan and Michael Porter, healthcare costs in the U.S. exceed 17 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and costs are rising.1 A fundamental cause of escalating costs are the incongruent systems that healthcare companies are using to measure these costs, as well as outdated methodologies. “Many healthcare organizations don’t fully understand the true cost of care for each patient’s entire care cycle,” said J. Alex Fernandez, Chief Executive Officer, Acorn. “Willamette Valley Medical Center, under the leadership of Dan Ordyna, is the first hospital to tackle this challenge by implementing TDABC across the entire hospital.”

Willamette Valley Medical Center (WVMC) now has the ability to assign cost to patients and highlight asset utilization and staffing inefficiencies across all departments. This enables the hospital to allocate all direct and indirect expenses for clinical, ancillary, and support departments to patients based on actual patient interactions supported by the hospital’s Nurse Acuity system and the Electronic Medical Record (EMR).

“The healthcare industry is going through a tremendous transformation as we look for affordable ways to respond to current demand,” said Dan Ordyna, Chief Executive Officer, Willamette Valley Medical Center. “Part of that conversion is finding better ways to manage our cost of care. We continue to pioneer innovative management approaches by applying TDABC to determine true cost, prepare for changes in reimbursement models and drive overall performance improvement.”

With Acorn’s technology, WVMC can assign cost based on actual level of effort related to a patient in each department and does not merely spread cost to monthly charges. Using this accurate costing based on their actual operations, WVMC will see value in a variety of ways:

  • Operational Cost Transparency: WVMC will use the Acorn TDABC results to provide visibility into the cost of care to the clinicians to drive efficiencies across all departments. In addition, TDABC allows capacity analysis to see over/underutilized capacity and the cost impact of such, allowing for addressing potential staffing shortages or skill mix changes.
  • Reimbursement and Contract Negotiations: WVMC is now well positioned for changes to reimbursement models including measurement of costs for risked-based reimbursement. Acorn insights provides them better knowledge in negotiating contracts with physicians and other care providers, commercial payers, and other entities, based on actual costs and value creation.
  • Profitable Growth: For the first time ever, WVMC can truly understand what hospital service lines are contributing in profitability and leverage this to eliminate, minimize or grow accordingly.

“With Acorn and TDABC, WVMC is ready to adapt to the changing healthcare landscape. We are better prepared to operate in a fiscally prudent and operationally efficient manner, still providing the quality of care our community expects. We feel more confident than ever about how WVMC will adapt and prosper while staying true to our mission of focusing on the patient and amazing care,” said Ordyna.

1The Big Idea: How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care,” Harvard Business Review Magazine, September 2011.

About Acorn

Acorn provides companies with profitability and cost management solutions to drive better business decisions. Combining proprietary technology with proven methodology, Acorn reveals enterprise-wide profit opportunities. Our unique approach enables clients to make continuous, fact-based decisions to improve their bottom line.

www.acornsys.com

Contacts

Acorn
Susan Wanek 713-963-9000 x2031
swanek@acornsys.com
or
Ketner Group PR + Marketing
Caitlin New or Catherine Seeds, 512-794-8876
acornPR@ketnergroup.com

Release Summary

Oregon-based healthcare provider, Willamette Valley Medical Center, has successfully implemented Acorn’s Performance Analyzer solution across its entire state-of-the-art healthcare facility.

Contacts

Acorn
Susan Wanek 713-963-9000 x2031
swanek@acornsys.com
or
Ketner Group PR + Marketing
Caitlin New or Catherine Seeds, 512-794-8876
acornPR@ketnergroup.com