Revenue Cycle Solutions
Revenue Cycle Compass
Case Study
Root Cause Analysis Reveals Charge Lag,
Drives Real Change
Riverside Health System, 800 Beds, Newport News, VA
Late Charges a Persistent Challenge: Even after working to
limit late charges, the seven hospital system recognized delayed
posts dogged their Revenue Cycle. When compared with the MidAtlantic cohort, the Riverside team was in the lower quartile for the
percent of charges posted within four days of discharge
Root Cause Analysis Uncovers Underlying Problem: With the
help of their Dedicated Advisor, Riverside ran an AR assessment
in Revenue Cycle Compass. The investigation identified specific
departments who struggled with late charges. A custom Time &
Days to Post report identified key ancillary departments where
charge nurses were having difficulty posting timely charges.
Working Smarter, Not Harder: Through continued education and
monthly report updates, staff were held accountable for charge
lags. This drove improvement across the health system with a
nine percent increase in Total Charges posted within four days of
service and an overall decrease of 5 days in AR.
Impact Highlights
5 Days
Reduction in AR
9%
Improvement of
Charges Posted within
Four Days of Discharge
Reporting Keeps Charge Posting Performance Efficient
Pin-Pointing the
Problem Source
Maximizing
Outcomes with
Minimum Effort
©2013 The Advisory Board Company • advisory.com
Riverside’s Patient Financial Services Team recognized
they were underperforming when compared to peers
across the mid-Atlantic region. They partnered with their
Dedicated Advisor to run an AR Assessment in an attempt
to the identify root cause of their ballooning AR. Through a
custom Time & Days to Post report, the team identified
late charges as an area of opportunity to improve cash
acceleration.
Riverside’s Project Management team utilized monthly
Revenue Cycle Compass reports to identify key, highoffending departments. By isolating key impact areas, the
group was able to invest wisely, not following a costly and
time consuming organizational wide effort. By prioritizing
individual departments, they customized their efforts and
set specific goals.
Data Visibility Allows for Best Practice Implementation
Fostering
Accountability
The analyst team built lasting results by providing
charge nurses Compass reports showing their
performance versus the cohort average. This way
they could see their peers performance and make
changes accordingly.
Riverside provided education for staff and monthly
reports to help establish accountability in their
departments. Process workflows were analyzed to
identify opportunities to streamline charge posting
procedure and resulted in a 5 day drop in AR as well
as a 9% improvement in charges captured within 4
days of service.
Strategy
implementation
After identifying the offending departments, the
analyst team focused on additional education and
process changes to improve efficiency. They worked
with users individually to address concerns and
improve awareness of the broader impact the staff
was having on the hospital. They were able to see
rapid gains in time to post charges and a reduction
in total AR Days.
Spotlight on Late Charge Improvement
Member Quote:
“Time & Days to Post report
allowed us to identify areas of
opportunity and potential
process workflow issues. By
utilizing Compass, we were
able to move from “Bottom
Quartile” to “Top Quartile” in
the cohort in only six months”.
-Matt Midgett, Project Manager
1) Mid Atlantic Cohort consists of 10 hospitals located in Virginia, North Carolina, and
Maryland.
A Team Dedicated
to Success
The success of this specific initiative is part of a broader organization-wide focus for Riverside. They have
established a team dedicated to investigating revenue cycle problems and identifying root cause issues as
well as evaluating processes. This team has utilized Revenue Cycle Compass spanning departments to
target specific areas of high opportunity and efficiently prescribe process changes. This team has yielded
high results and consistently delivered organizational improvements.
©2013 The Advisory Board Company
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