A 25-bed critical access hospital offering outpatient services—including gynecology, podiatry, physical therapy, and occupational therapy—was struggling to track patient access metrics. Without clear, reliable data, they couldn’t make fully informed decisions to improve patient outcomes.
The client
Like many small and rural health systems, the hospital was expected to track and improve key patient access metrics, including pre-registration rates, scheduled patient rates, left without being seen rates, and point of service collected accounts rates. However, their financial constraints prevented them from investing in enterprise-level analytics platforms such as Power BI, Tableau, or Epic’s reporting modules. Instead, they relied on time-consuming manual reporting and fragmented data across departments, making it nearly impossible to gain a complete picture or make strategic, data-driven decisions.
The challenge
As with many organizations operating with lean technology and limited staff resources, the hospital needed an innovative yet practical solution—one that could enhance operational efficiency, improve access to care, and optimize the overall patient experience.
Their ideal solution had to be:
- Easy to implement
- Built with familiar tools (Microsoft Excel)
- User-friendly for both frontline staff and leadership
- Capable of providing real-time insights for decision-making
The Solution
BerryDunn’s patient access and front-end optimization consultants delivered a fully customized patient access dashboard—built entirely in Excel—to fit the hospital’s unique needs. The goal was to streamline their data collection and reporting while offering meaningful, actionable insights.
Working closely with hospital leadership, BerryDunn identified the key metrics to monitor and transformed them into a user-friendly, visual tool requiring minimal training.
Key elements of the work included:
- Assessing existing workflows and reporting gaps
- Defining critical patient access metrics aligned with operational and strategic goals
- Designing and building an intuitive, Excel-based dashboard
- Providing training to ensure long-term usability
- Automating processes where possible (e.g., formulas, pivot tables, and dynamic visualizations)
The outcome
The final dashboard empowered the hospital to track, visualize, and act on patient access data—without investing in expensive software or infrastructure. The solution demonstrated that high-impact analytics don’t have to come with a high price tag.
To support rapid performance assessment, the dashboard incorporated “Good, Better, Best” benchmark values for each metric, aligned with NAHAM Patient Access Key Performance Indicators. This structure allowed leadership to easily identify areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement.
The tool significantly improved data transparency, enabling both frontline staff and leadership to make informed, timely decisions that enhance patient access. More than just a short-term fix, the dashboard provided the hospital with a sustainable, scalable reporting solution for the future.
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BerryDunn’s revenue cycle consultants work with healthcare organizations to objectively evaluate existing processes and develop actionable strategies for both short- and long-term performance improvements.
With expertise spanning the entire continuum of care, our approach focuses on cash acceleration, revenue integrity, and maximizing collections. Using industry best practices, we help healthcare organizations optimize their revenue cycle performance with efficiency and effectiveness.
Learn more about BerryDunn’s revenue cycle team and services.
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