Arkin

THE CHALLENGE

Given the critical requirement to report accurate patient information, Elisio Santo’s BI team needed a streamlined and connected process for the clinics and caregivers to collect, manage and report on the status of patients and the care being delivered. Time is money, and money equals care. 

Arkin had already chosen to replace their legacy BI tool (SAP Business Objects) due to disconnected systems and too much reliance on emailing data back and forth. They chose Microsoft Power BI as their new Business Intelligence Platform. 

Power BI provided major advancements with more modern analysis and reporting; however, users still could not input or collaborate on data in Power BI. To collect data from across the 15 clinics, spreadsheets still needed to be used, which introduced a new set of challenges. 

• 9,000+ Excel forms a year were needed to collect and track daily patient information. 
• 10+ hours a week, per user, to manually validate and process data from spreadsheets into their Health Management System, (HMS) data warehouse.  
• Caregivers were constantly at risk of manual keying errors in Excel based forms. 
• Risk to patient privacy with spreadsheet security limitations and manual process.  
• Persistent concern of penalties and fines from government and insurance agencies. 

In order to secure appropriate funding to serve their clients, branch managers manually scoured spreadsheets daily to validate patient information and declare the level and cost of care they were providing. 

As with any manual process things could go wrong, including keying errors, calculation or rollup errors due to row or column insertions.  Audits could uncover incorrect information sent to insurance companies increasing the potential risk of fines up to €100,000. Failure to accurately report to government agencies could mean funding reversals of tens of thousands of euros. 

Elisio and his team went in of search of a solution that would give the BI team more control over data accuracy, enable caregiver and clinic managers secure and direct interaction with the data in Power BI, and automate processing of information back into the HMS.  

How could they collect the information required, securely, all with automated data validation checks? Adding Power ON’s Visual Planner to their existing investment in Power BI was the answer. 

THE SOLUTION

Adding Power ON’s solution eliminated the painful process of managing and validating 9,000 spreadsheet input files for multiple teams across the organization.  Managers, Caregivers, Finance, the BI team, and Leadership could all use a unified platform (Power BI) to collect data, analyze, determine, manage, and fund patient care.  

With Power ON, the BI team developed a single Power BI report/form that could be used by multiple departments and clinics daily, to review, enter, and consolidate data on the details and cost of patients and their care.  

The Power BI report/form rolls up to a Power BI dashboard where management and decision makers can quickly see essential information in real-time; who was admitted, if the patient was in-house or not, how long they were in-house, the reason the patient left or was released, how much funding is being received, surplus, shortfalls? 

Data accuracy was improved as data input on the form is automatically validated against HMS data simplifying the process to provide accurate billing and reporting to insurance companies and avoid the risk of costly fines.  

Arkin’s Planning and Control group is able to perform in-house audits with ease working off a single dashboard report, versus multiple spreadsheet files. If numbers are green, they know the information from the clinics was processed correctly.  If there’s a mismatch, it’s red, and they know exactly where to investigate and correct the discrepancy fast.   

With Power ON’s integrated and connected solution in Power BI, 
they can trust the data and drive better outcomes. 

Staff members on the move, working in the community use Power ON’s Mobile app to document progress on projects, saving up to ten hours a project working with a single consistent format for their reporting requirements.

THE RESULTS

Arkin’s switch to Power BI with Power ON brought a modern and quicker approach, with consistent information for managing their details across clinics and patients and reporting accurately to insurance companies and agencies.  

A universal data analysis + collection form in Power BI, and automated validation rules to ensure that clinic data is consistent with the HMS data, produces substantial results: 

• Avoided: Risk of up to €100K in fines to insurance companies 
• Saved: 10+ hours a week on average, per user, reducing the effort to mere minutes, eliminating manual validation of 9,000 Excel files. That’s 40 hours a month – for one user.  
• Improved: Financial gains and time savings are used for better quality of patient care. 
• Funded: Securing higher revenues with timelier and more accurate data. 

The savings with Power ON are staggering of up to 12,000 hours annually to manage 30,000 patients annually, with users across 25 Departments, 15 Branches, 25 Clinics, and minimal effort for the BI team. 

Arkin as a whole now spends significantly less time generating and validating the data. They have more trust in the data as well as the outcomes that are reported, saving cycles, time, and money.  

For Elisio’s BI team, they have more time to listen to end users and understand what they are doing with the information and what else they need to do their work. 

Because Power ON’s solution is integrated with Power BI, Arkin leverages Microsoft’s Active Directory to provide row level security. With the data now secure, caregivers can access, change, and view information only for patients under their care.   

Power ON + Power BI’s integration with Active Directory reduces the risk of the
Dutch Data Protection Authority fines associated with protection and privacy of patient information. 

Finance can quickly see the status of patients via their Power BI dashboard; how the clinics are standing, how many staff are active or out, and increases or drops in patients. Key information to submit plans to insurance companies and communities that provide funding. 

The Power BI Dashboards and reports fueled from Power ON collected data enable Finance to better manage the funding ceilings set by insurance companies. They can proactively monitor and reach out to insurance companies if the data indicates they are about to cross the line and if increased funding is in order.  

As stated earlier; time is money, and money equals care. The time and money Arkin saves is redirected to serving their clients and community better. More funds can be allocated to developing new treatments and bringing people back to healthy living.

AFTER

• STREAMLINED: One (1) form to manage data collection

• AUTOMATED: Data validation
  <1 hour

• PROACTIVE:
  Can better manage funding to deliver consistent, quality patient care