Capacity Management Brochure
Improve Operational Processes to Optimize Clinical and Financial Outcomes
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November 04, 2021
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In this period of key resource shortages, a healthcare organization’s ability to align limited beds, staff, services and supplies with shifting daily demand can mean the difference between financial stability and duress. Capacity challenges, heightened costs and mounting clinical consequences have placed additional emphasis on the need for effective capacity management planning, processes and tools. However, these strategic investment decisions can be difficult to navigate, and implementation can be rife with complications and delays.
FTI Consulting’s team has implemented capacity management programs for large healthcare systems, academic medical centers, community hospitals and post-acute care settings in some of the most impacted areas. Our professionals have developed creative strategies to mitigate many of the pitfalls associated with these implementation efforts. Our team offers a range of expertise across key functions critical to surge or crisis scenarios, including leadership advisory, clinical informatics and decision support, clinical operations, workforce management and supply chain.
Leadership Advisory, Clinical Informatics and Decision Support
Key to responding to a crisis is the ability to understand the extent of the crisis. FTI Consulting’s Capacity Management team collaborates with client leadership to develop and deploy a decision support framework and a central command center that defines and responds to distinct, data-based thresholds for response scenarios (pre-COVID surge, COVID-19 contingency, and COVID-19 crisis levels).
Services include:
- On-demand leadership consultation for crisis management
- Command center support
- COVID-19 dashboard development and utilization
- Communication planning
- Staffing huddle development and supervision
- Third-party crisis partner management (federal, state and charity organizations)
- Recovery planning for elective procedures and outpatient services
Workforce Management and Clinical Staffing Support
Our team offers clients tactical coordination of staff deployment, contract labor management, emergency staffing ratios and scheduling best practices to support organizations in mitigating staffing shortages. FTI Consulting’s Capacity Management team provides additional services, including employee leave analysis for resource pool calibrations, contract labor onboarding and off-boarding, and talent roster assessments to engage resources from throughout the organization.
Services include:
- Emergency management reporting of ADT, staff and census
- Contingency plan development to manage patient-to-staff ratios and bed availability to facilitate continuation of essential outpatient surgeries and procedures
- Staffing demand validation and consolidation
- Agency onboarding and deployment management
- Agency ramp-down strategy
- Staff roster management (return to work, leave policy management, etc.)
- Cross-site resource sharing
Clinical Operations
As COVID-19 cases rise, the priority is to determine where and when capacity can be added to meet the needs of an emergent situation. Our team is experienced in the implementation of data-driven processes that respond to demand and effectively reallocate resources from non-emergent areas to support critical needs (ED, ICU, etc.).
Services include:
- Unit opening/closing strategies
- Site ingress and demand-management strategies and programs
- Patient transfer policies and management
- Management of contracted staff deployment
- Clinical and ancillary alignment strategy
Supply Chain and Cost Tracking
Ongoing PPE, pharmaceuticals and capital equipment shortages require continuous monitoring and agile decision-making to meet demands. Our experts work to implement vendor vetting programs and develop cross-functional teams that enable responses to the latest supply or service challenge. Our Supply Chain and Workforce Management team evaluates the use of agency labor in key service areas (environmental services, security, nursing, etc.) and optimizes current agreements through detailed reviews of contracts and pricing.
Services include:
- PPE and clinical resource inventory management
- Vendor contract review
- Invoice analysis
- Temporary resource tracking and deployment management
- Agency staff tracking and reduction strategies
- Hourly rate monitoring
Case Studies - Clinical Continuity Services
Client 1: Academic Multi-facility Health System based in New York City
Situation: FTI Consulting was asked to aid system leadership in navigating the unforeseen health crisis and support management at all sites in compiling statistics.
Role: As industry leaders with experienced Chief Nursing Officers and experts in workforce management, we collaborated with client leadership to identify strategic initiatives and implement key tools. This collaboration facilitated the appropriate mix (contracted and internal) and deployment of resources to manage peak volumes. While the primary focus was on ensuring that clinicians’ needs were met, our experts also assisted support services leaders in implementing standard contract terms and conditions for agency labor in order to ensure the cost-effective deployment of support service roles.
Impact: As the surge subsided, FTI Consulting’s team guided a rapid “ramp-down” of premium resources, reviewed vendor invoices for contract compliance, and ensured staff were in place to return to pre-surge services and volumes.
Client 2: Not-For-Profit Health System in Northeast
Situation: Our client needed an immediate rapid-response team of clinicians and healthcare operational and supply chain subject matter experts (SMEs) to assist them operationally and provide guidance on continuity of care during the COVID-19 surge.
Role: Our team of SMEs worked collaboratively with our client’s executives and medical teams to design and deploy comprehensive emergency preparedness plans to use immediately in the areas of leadership and governance, bed capacity and patient flow requirements, workforce utilization and staffing, pharmaceutical procurement and management, and logistics and supply chain.
Impact: FTI Consulting’s experts designed and deployed nursing and medical staff policies and procedures with associated communication and planning checklists. Our team identified appropriate patient care disposition and transport, managed facility bed surge capacity, and designed nursing and physician staffing ratios. While partnering with the client’s supply chain team, we appropriately managed biomedical hazardous waste and supplier contracting requirements. We developed a resource projection tool to determine how much PPE, medical equipment and supplies were needed.
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Published
November 04, 2021
Key Contacts
Lisa O'Connor, RN, B.S.N., M.S.
Senior Managing Director, Co-Leader of Healthcare Provider Practice
Senior Managing Director