Lafayette General Health (LGH) is a large nonprofit, community-owned regional health system, serving the south-central region of Louisiana. Over the past several years, the organization has been working to improve its quality measures and streamline revenue cycle operations.
LGH began their Cerner revenue cycle journey in 2003. They implemented Cerner Patient Accounting,which has helped them take advantage of a fully integrated revenue cycle system to drive improvements in their financial operations. The solutions fully integrate with LGH’s Cerner EHR, which enables staff to capture accurate and complete information at the front end, provides financial clearance capabilities and enables clinical data to drive coding, billing and cash collection operations.
Last fall, LGH received a measure, apply and perform (MAP) award from the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) – one of only three organizations in the country recognized by the HFMA for performance improvement in revenue cycle
Since implementing Cerner Patient Accounting, LGH has achieved the following results:
- A dramatic fall in Net Accounts Receivable (Net AR) Days – an indicator of overall A/R performance and revenue cycle efficiency. By the end of fiscal year 2014, LGH had decreased their A/R days by 41 percent, ending at 44 net, which 11 days below HFMA’s Net AR Days target.
- A reduction in Discharged Not Final Billed (DNFB) – which indicates revenue cycle performance and can identify performance issues impacting cash flow – from double to single digits.
While LGH improved the health system’s overall revenue cycle performance, Lafayette General Medical Center (LGMC), LCH’s flagship hospital, has also seen improvements in its quality outcomes by continuing to focus on patients first.
In 2012, LGMC and Cerner began collaborating to implement eQualityCheck™ (eQC), which allows the organization to proactively monitor, manage and react to quality clinical data. By leveraging eQC, abstractors have visibility to real-time quality data, which enables them to identify areas of opportunity and collaborate with the care team to provide the best quality care before discharge.
Since implementing eQC, LGMC has seen a 50 percent reduction in abstraction time. For FY2015, the hospital has met 24 of its 26 quality measures compliance goals.
“We create the best environment with the best quality outcomes for our patients,” said Becky Benoit, Chief Nursing Officer at LGMC.
Hear from leadership and quality team members of Lafayette General Medical Center about how implementing Cerner’s quality reporting solution has positively impacted the hospital’s workflow, outcomes and quality goals.
