Sonora Quest Laboratories (SQL), a joint venture between Banner Health and Quest Diagnostics, is the nation’s largest integrated laboratory system, serving more than 20,000 patients every day. Like many laboratories, SQL struggled with endless silos of data and information. This required stakeholders in various departments to manually enter data across multiple systems while IT resources retrieved, analyzed, and distributed reports. Yet IT resources became strained as the organization transitioned from a client-centric LIS to patient-centric LIS, further exacerbating the burden of manually collating performance reports and key quality metrics.
Key Takeaways
- SQL previously spent an enormous amount of time collating reports and performing manual calculations
- The organization reduced the labor necessary to pull their daily performance report from 5 hours a day to just 45 minutes a day
- By reducing manual work and duplicate work, overall employee efficiency increased by 85%
About Sonora Quest Laboratories
Sonora Quest Laboratories, a joint venture between Banner Health and Quest Diagnostics, is the nation’s largest integrated laboratory system with approximately 3,100 employees serving more than 23,000 patients every day throughout Arizona. They are the market share leader in clinical laboratory testing in Arizona, performing more than 60 million diagnostic tests per year.
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The Challenge
The Solution
SQL leadership realized that in order to move forward with strategic initiatives, the organization needed a solution that provided real-time end-user reports and dashboards and visibility of these reports across the entire organization. SQL ingested multiple data sources into their healthcare-specific CRM to automatically create detailed, real-time dashboards that indicate up-to-the moment trends and performance against key metrics.
Additionally, it is extremely important that SQL leaders understand how staffing and volume intersect in order to ensure they are properly staffed for the types of tests performed. Graphs and visual charts allow users to track if they are meeting TAT benchmarks, if their volume is level-loaded, and track by the hour how many tests are coming in and how many are completed. SQL is now able to instantly assess bandwidth by test and by department to ensure they are staffing the correct departments at the correct times and at the correct levels. Leaders can also identify if certain departments are struggling with staffing or missing their benchmarks.
The Results
The overall visibility achieved by SQL has reduced the labor necessary to pull their daily performance report from 5 hours a day to just 45 minutes a day, increasing overall employee efficiency by 85%. SQL is now able to:
- Provide real-time financial and operational trend analysis to key stakeholders
- Use live dashboards and reports to review and manage TaT, utilization, reimbursements, volume, and productivity
- Track employee productivity across departments to drive accountability
- Broadcast reports and immediately notify key stakeholders of any risks, missed benchmarks, or red flags
SQL now has a real-time, 360-degree view of data and metrics across departments, effectively dissolving data silos and providing users with the information necessary to provide a 5-star experience to patients and clients alike.