Challenge
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A public hospital had a ‘hunch’ that significant working capital was locked up in accounts receivable through process inefficiencies
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The details of the billing cycle from patient discharge to invoice paid were unknown and lacked transparency through all levels in the organisation
Solution
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Developed detailed process maps for all upstream processes
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Collated various data sources to construct an analytical picture of time, value and variation around each node in the process
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Conducted interviews coupled with field observations to validate data
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Brainstormed and prioritised project opportunities to bridge the identified issues
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Developed detailed project scopes
Results
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Delivered 8 detailed project scopes to reduce working capital by $1.4M and obtain annual savings of $1.3M including:
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Prioritisation system for high value episodes
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Electronic record keeping to improve EFT efficiency
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Debottlenecking current processes to improve EFT efficiency
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Improvements to radiology admission timing system
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Optimising radiology billing turn around time via electronic billing
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Project enablers including cascaded metrics from CEO to the floor along with visual management were also detailed to improve analysis repeatability and project sustainability.