From a data standpoint and an analytics standpoint, we want to be able to predict. We’ve done tons of work and tons of research to find out, for example, what does the patient want? Often, some companies provide a patient menu. There’s a standardized menu. Ours is adjusted for regionality. It’s what the patients want when they want it. And oftentimes, we find it’s at a lower cost basis. For us, we look at productivity, meals per productive labor, total square foot cleaned, but the main thing we look at is cost. How does that compare to benchmarks of other like health systems? And we also look at satisfaction. You can look at a ton of metrics. Those key ones that we look at are satisfaction and cost. We know if we spend a certain amount of money, what our satisfaction should be. When those things don’t align, we know we have a problem, and we need to send in resources to help our teams align to get the best possible outcome.
Raw data gives us a starting point. From there, that gives us the clue to go in and investigate what we need and how we take that raw data and try to move it into actionable outcomes. That raw data gives our leaders the ability to focus in where there may be an issue. With all the data we have, we know where the resources need to be focused. We solve the problems quickly, and we move on to the next thing. It’s about constant improvement every day. Are you better tomorrow than you are today? And that raw data gives us a starting point.
The tools that we’ve put in that have probably given the most decision-making ability to our folks, whether they’re remote or onsite, is TaskUp. That is an integrated software that shows where our associates are at any given time. It provides us the data that we need to operate the business more efficiently, and it also provides our associates a great way to be recognized.
If you’ve got somebody that’s cleaning rooms two minutes faster than another housekeeper, and they have great performance, what are they doing? How do we share that best practice? And that data not only helps our leaders. It helps our associates. The other one would probably be TaskVue. It does something for nursing that we have never done in the past. They can look at it from the desktop computer. They know when a patient’s meal’s coming, when they should provide insulin to a diabetic. They know that exact real-time tracking. And that has been a game changer. We’ve seen calls that would come down to a food service department. 72 calls a day. When we started the business, we put in TaskVue, and it’s one or two calls a day. It’s providing an efficiency and a knowledge base for our nursing to really provide that patient care by the bedside as opposed to tracking down where a meal might be.
Same thing for a housekeeping need. It’s provided a great service to our nurses, our patients, and our people. Predictive analytics help leaders because they know what the benchmark or the goal should be. When we have the predictive analytics, we know based upon the data that we have gained, that is what the patient is going to want before they get there. That helps leaders know what they should be striving toward. It takes the emotion out of the decision, and it gives them the data they need to operate their business.
Now, TouchPoint is far more than reporting. We have gone to a more data-based company because we know that’s the way that we can take care of our people and our patients better. This company was founded to change healthcare. We knew that healthcare was broken. Predictive analytics absolutely help our leaders know what the goal line is to try to achieve those outcomes. We not only give them the targets to reach. We give them the tools to reach them and the processes to reach them. That’s why we’re really pushing a standardized turnkey operation platform because so many people today, the job is so difficult. We’re doing it with less staff. We’re doing it with less money, and without clear transformative data and insights and the processes and the programs to get there, you can’t do it.