Topics: Oncology, Service Lines, Length of Stay, Efficiency, Performance Improvement
With pressures mounting to improve quality of care while lowering costs, it is more critical than ever for oncology administrators to have access to timely performance data and benchmarks, such as cancer care length of stay (LOS). However, LOS varies according to many factors such as institution-status, bed-size, and cancer-type, creating a complex matrix for comparison.
Introducing the Oncology Length of Stay Opportunity Assessment
The newest tool from the Oncology Roundtable, the Oncology Length of Stay Opportunity Assessment, enables hospital leaders to identify opportunities to reduce cancer case LOS with the click of a button. The resulting institution-specific custom assessment:
- highlights opportunities to improve Medicare cancer case LOS
- quantifies the magnitude of the opportunity
- drills down by tumor site and MS-DRG to facilitate targeted performance improvement
Analysis at the click of a button–no data input required
Drawing upon information from the 2010 MedPAR dataset, the tool generates a custom assessment of hospitals’ performance—without data entry.
Users are prompted to create a custom comparison cohort of hospitals, using multiple variables, including location, teaching status, and bed size. To ensure statistical validity, the comparison cohort must include at least 25 institutions.
Quantifying the opportunity to reduce cancer ALOS
The assessment compares the hospital’s average LOS for specific types of cancer cases (defined by MS-DRG and tumor site) to the average LOS performance of a peer cohort. Every instance in which the hospital’s average LOS exceeds the comparison cohort’s average LOS is flagged as an opportunity to reduce average LOS.
In order to determine the magnitude of the opportunity, the tool also calculates the difference between the hospital’s average LOS and the cohort’s average LOS for each type of cancer case. When the difference is positive (that is, your hospital’s average LOS is longer than the cohort’s average LOS), then the difference is multiplied by the hospital’s volume for that type of case to yield “opportunity days.” The “total opportunity days” include “opportunity days” across all types of cancer cases.
Drilling down by tumor site and MS-DRG
Once the user has determined the magnitude of the opportunity to reduce cancer LOS, the next step is to identify the specific types of cases. The tool enables users to cut the data according to tumor site and MS-DRG and quickly discover specific targets for performance improvement.
Access the tool
Oncology Roundtable members may log in to access the Oncology Length of Stay Opportunity Assessment. First-time users of Advisory Board customized assessments should contact the Advisory Board’s Data & Analytics team at analytics@advisory.com to obtain access to their institution-specific data. For the fastest response, specify your institution name and provider number. If you have already obtained access, proceed to the tool directly.
