HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 1

ASSIGNMENT 3: Business Case and PIECES (Wellness Activity

Tracking System)

JASH MEHTA

GROUP 3

Mentor: Kshitij Chug

Weekly meeting time (Group meeting): Wednesday 3-4pm

Weekly meeting time (Group + Mentor meeting): Wednesday 4-

5pm

Venue: Ice Box, Hinds Hall

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 2

CONTEXT

Healthcare self-insurance and consulting Group offer customers with variety of services to the

clients. HCG encourages many wellness activities, promote self-management through

healthcare Apps and increased patient clinician interaction. Providing such services requires

building an IT infrastructure and systems which can support huge volume of customers.

HCG currently tracks all wellness initiatives by using excel sheets. They track the success of a

wellness initiative in terms of patient participation, satisfaction and engagement. All

communication is done using Microsoft outlook.

The following describes the process for tracking of wellness activities:

1) The wellness activity planning center (WAPC) requests medical information and alert

systems for the medical history over the past few months. This information is stored in

the excel sheets by the WAPC. Based on this history they make rough plans for a

wellness activity.

2) These plans are sent out to all the customers enrolled with HCG by using Outlook. The

customers interested in attending the wellness activity are supposed to reply with a RSVP email

within a stipulated amount of time.

3) Based on the number of people reply to that email, the WAPC will decide on the final venue,

time etc. The final plans are sent out only to those customers who had replied to the previous

email.

4) The wellness partners (gyms, nutritionists, yoga experts etc.) have their own systems of tracking

the customer attendance. Some partners track the attendance in a register while others track in

excel sheets or have their sophisticated databases to track attendance. The WAPC is responsible

for accumulating all this data into excel sheet on bi-weekly bases. The WAPC is supposed to

analyze the success of wellness activities in terms of participation (attendance). It is done by

analyzing: how many customers registered for the wellness activity and how many finally turned

up for the activity.

5) The WAPC sends out survey forms to all the customers for the wellness activity they attended.

This forms are sent out immediately after the wellness activity. The customers are asked to rate

the wellness activity on certain parameters: wellness coach, wellness activity venue, wellness

activity learnings etc. All the customers are asked to rate on a scale of 5 for the above

parameters. This exercise is done for analyzing the customer satisfaction.

6) The WAPC sends out monthly health metric forms to all the customers. The improvement/

deterioration health metrics are compared and analyzed every month in order to look out for

customer engagement and satisfaction.

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 3

PIECES ANALYSIS

PERFORMANCE

Throughput- the amount of work performed over some period of time.

The current system requires the following work to be done

1) Transform all the data, acquired from Medical Tracking System, into suitable format so that it

can be stored in Excel Sheets. Therefore, this process consumes a lot of time, directly affecting

the throughput.

2) Manually add the new customers email id into the system to send out wellness activities’ emails.

Therefore, this process consumes a lot of time, directly affecting the throughput.

3) As the customers reply with RSVP emails, the WAPC employees keep a track manually of how

many customers registered for a wellness activity. This requires another Excel Sheet to be

maintained by the employees. Finally, based on the count of the customers in this excel sheet

WAPC makes final plans. Final plans are sent out to the customers in this excel sheet only. This

process is too time consuming and difficult for human to keep a track.

4) All the wellness partners (gyms, nutritionists, yoga experts etc.) have their own attendance

system (papers, excel sheets, sophisticated DBMS). Therefore, the WAPC has to integrate these

attendance into one excel sheet on bi-weekly basis. It requires manual work to be done for

entering the attendance. Therefore, it affects the throughput of the system directly to be

reduced.

5) The WAPC also have to process the feedback/survey forms manually into the excel sheet.

6) WAPC has to compare manually the improvement in health metrics of all the customers.

Response Time - the average delay between a transaction or request and a response to that transaction

or request and a response to that transaction or request.

1) Time delay to acquire data from Medical Tracking System and to transform them into required

format

2) Time delay to enter each new customer’s email Id into the system.

3) Time delay for all the customers to reply and then evaluate how many customers actually

replied.

4) Time delay to enter attendance in the excel sheets.

5) Time delay for WAPC to send out survey/feedback forms, customer replying back and then filling

into excel sheets.

6) Time delay to manually compare improvement/deterioration in customer’s health metrics.

Proposed System

1) In the future system transformation of the data will not be required as the different systems will

be integrated under one IT infrastructure.

2) Manual entry of data will not be required in the future system.

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 4

3) Manual counting of emails will not be required, IT system will take care of number of customers

registered.

4) The sending and receiving of emails will be replaced by sending and receiving of notifications via

healthcare Apps and websites.

5) Sending and receiving of survey forms via email will be replaced by surveys via Apps and

website.

6) Manual comparison and tracking of health metrics will be replaced by data mining and creating

dashboards which will bring out patterns and trends.

INFORMATION

Current System

A. Outputs

1) Lack of any information – Survey/Feedback forms are sent to all the customers but very few fill

that survey forms and email them back.

A customer forgets to sign the attendance sheet so the attendance is incomplete to be evaluated.

Sometimes attendance sheet is lost.

2) Lack of necessary information - Due to error in the input methods, few health metrics are not

captured. This information is necessary in order to evaluate a wellness activity’s success in terms

of customer satisfaction.

3) Too much information -- “information overload” – Generally while evaluating the health metrics it

is too much information for a human to process. Comparing and tracking every months’ health

metrics for thousands of customers is information overload.

4) Information that is not in a useful format – As the attendance system is different for all the

wellness partners the information presented to WAPC is not in the required format. WAPC has to

process this data to make into useable form.

B. Inputs

1) Data is not captured – 1. Customer forgets to sign the attendance sheet

2. Attendance sheet is misplaced

3. Customer does not send survey/feedback forms

2) Too much data is captured – Many health metrics are captured from Medical Information Tracking

System. Also, these are captured from customers.

C. Stored Data

1) Data is not well organized – Comparison in health improvement is a tough task as Medical

Information Tracking System has its own method of storing the data. WAPC stores the health

metric captured from customers in excel.

2) Data is not flexible -- not easy to meet new information needs from stored data

3) Data is not secure to accident or vandalism – The information given by Medical Tracking system to

WAPC is stored in excel sheet. There are high chances of customer’s private data being leaked. If it

is leaked the company may not know the offender.

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 5

Proposed System

1) To make sure that customer always fill the feedback/surveys IT system must not allow the

customers to register for the next wellness initiatives unless and until the customer fills

feedback for the previous wellness activity. For more detailed feedback the IT system must give

bonuses to the customers for filling detailed surveys.

2) The future system will make sure that only relevant health metrics are asked on

feedback/surveys on the website and Apps. Therefore, necessary health metrics are captured.

3) The system must implement data mining algorithms to bring out trends and patterns in the

overall improvement of health. An expert must create dashboards to graphically present trends

and patterns.

4) To protect customer data and customer’s medical information security algorithms will be in

place in the new system.

EFFICIENCY

Current System

A. People, machines, or computers waste materials and supplies

People’s efforts get wasted in sending out emails, evaluating emails, transforming data, inserting

data manually in excel sheets.

B. Effort required for tasks is excessive

Analyzing health metrics it is very difficult for a human to track huge amount of data. It requires too

much effort to generate reports because if takes too much effort to evaluate these reports.

C. Materials required for tasks is excessive

In the current system outlook and excel is used.

Wellness partners use different systems to track attendance.

Different survey/feedbacks forms are sent out to the customers.

Many employees are required to transform data, send and receive emails, insert attendance in the

system, track health of the customer, send and receive feedback forms.

Proposed System VS Current System

PROCESS CURRENT SYSTEM FUTURE SYSTEM

CURRENT: Sending And Receiving Emails FUTURE: Sending And Receiving Notifications On Healthcare Apps

1 week 2-3 days

Transforming Data(1000 records)

5-6 hours 0 hours

Inserting data (1000 records) 5-6 hours 0 hours

Capturing customer feedback 1 week 2-3 days

Analyzing health metrics 2 weeks 2-3 hours

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 6

Proposed System

As shown in the table following will happen in future system:

1) Proposed system will drastically bring down the efforts of the people.

2) It will also greatly bring down the wastage of materials being caused in the current system.

CONTROL

A. Ethics are breached on data or information -- refers to data or information getting to unauthorized

people Excel Sheets of customer details being leaked.

B. Redundantly stored data is inconsistent in different files or databases Different systems by different wellness partners for attendance tracking induces redundancy in data.

C. Data privacy regulations or guidelines are being (or can be) violated

Customer history being leaked D. Processing errors are occurring (either by people, machines, or software)

Due to inconsistent data formats many processing errors do occur in tracking of attendance

Proposed System

1) In the future system there will be no possibility of leakage of data. The admin/ employee logged in

the system will have an ID associated to him/her. If the employee tries to leak the data it will trigger

to higher authorities with employee’s ID.

2) In the future system there will be no redundancy in data as the systems will be integrated

3) There will be system security algorithms in place to ensure data privacy.

ECONOMICS

Current System

Description Value/Unit

Average number of Wellness Activities per month

4

Number of data entry employees(Entry in Excel Sheet)

12

Working hours per day 8

Number of employees for process health metrics

8

Hourly rate for data entry $15 Hourly rate for processing $25 No of computers 20 Monthly Computer maintenance cost $10/month

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 7

Proposed System

Description Value/Unit

Average number of Wellness Activities per month

4

Number of data entry employees(Entry in Excel Sheet)

1

Working hours per day 8

Number of employees for process health metrics (EXPERTS)

3

Hourly rate for data entry $15 Hourly rate for processing $35 No of computers 4 Monthly Computer maintenance cost $10/month

Entities Current State Future State Benefits in Future

Current Expenditure

Future Monthly Savings

Data Entry in Excel

12 employees

1 employee 11 employees

12*8*15*22= $31,680

11*8*15*22= $29,040

Health Metrics Information Processing

8 employees 3 employees 5 employees 8*8*25*22= $35,200

(5*8*25*22=$22,000) -(3*8*10*22=$5280) =$16,720

Maintenance of Computers

20 computers

4 computers 16 computers

10*20=$200 16*10=$160

Total $67,080 $45,920

SERVICE

A. The system is not coordinated with other systems

Attendance tracking is not in co-ordination with other systems.

B. The system is awkward to use

Sending and receiving email from thousands of customers makes the current system awkward

to use.

C. The system is not easy to use

It is difficult to track attendance, patient engagement, satisfaction for thousands of customers

with tools such as Excel and Outlook.

D. The system produces inaccurate results and unreliable results

Since processing of data of health metrics of thousands of customers over a period of time is

very complex, the current system produces inaccurate results in terms of health improvement

or deterioration.

Proposed System

1) The future system will be very easy to use as there will be no sending and receiving of emails. All

process will happen at one click. This makes the process very efficient.

2) The system will produce accurate and reliable results in the proposed system.

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 8

VALUE STREAM MAPPING

CURRENT SYSTEM

Access Medical Information

System(MIS) data & Store Medical Information in

Excel sheets

Evaluate & decide which wellness

activity to conduct

Send Emails Regarding Activity

Initial Plans & Receive RSVP Emails from

customers and keep a count

Accumulate attendance data from all wellness

partners & Fill the attendance in

excel sheet

Send and Receive Survey/Feedback

Forms

Compare Health Metrics to

determine overall improvement

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 9

FUTURE SYSTEM

Admin Logs into the system.

Accesses Medical Information System data.

System prompts which activity to

conduct.

Admin hits publish button so

that plans are available on web portal and Apps

Customer clicks on RSVP to register for

seminars. System keeps the count

Customer swipes cards to register

their attendance, it gets updated in

the database

Survey/ Feedback on the Apps and

Website

*Bonus

*Penalty

Data Mining Algorithms to process huge

volumes of data. Create

Dashboards to determine

improvement

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 10

GENERAL PERFORMANCE METRICS

Object to measure Dimension Indicators (Quantity & Quality)

Process 1. Data entry

2. Emailing and

Tracking

3. Processing

Efficiency

The process becomes very efficient

as the current system is moving

from excel sheets and outlook to

sophisticated system. The new

system saves a lot of time and

labor. Previous system had 20

employees but the new system has

4 employees.

(No. of Employees for Current

System) – (No. of Employees for

Future System)

= 20 Employees – 4 employees

= 16 Employees saved

Time

Data Collection time in any system =

No. of Employees * No. of hours

they work per day

Data Collection time reduced =

[(No. of Employees In current

system) – (No. of Employees in

future system)] * No. of hours they

work per day

Data collection time has been

reduced by 11*8 hours = 88 hours.

Processing time has been reduced

by 11*5 hours = 55 hours.

Labor

Labor Effort Reduced = {[(No. of

Employees In current system) – (No.

of Employees in future

system)]/(No. of Employees in

future system)} * 100

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 11

The effort of data entry into excel

sheets is reduced by 91.66%

The effort of processing has been

reduced by 62.5%

Product 1. Automated data

entry

2. Notifications

3. Data privacy

4. Data Mining &

Business

Intelligence

Efficiency

The final tracking system will very

efficient as the system will be

automated and will replace the

traditional email and excel system.

This saves a lot of labor and cost for

the company.

The error rates in processing health

metrics will be reduced because of

data mining and business

intelligence.

Time The customers will save time by just

clicking on RSVP button. The

employees and company save time

to keep a track of registered

customers.

The employee saves time as there is

automated data entry in the new

system.

Complexity of processing health

metrics is reduced as a result it

gives out results very fast.

Quality In the previous system there was no

provision for privacy of data. Excel

sheets with customers’ health

records and medical information

could have been leaked easily.

However, in the future system there

are provisions for system security

and data security.

Deliverable 1. Healthcare Apps

and Web portals

Quality The overall quality of the system

will improve in the future system.

HEALTHCARE SELF-INSURANCE CONSULTING GROUP

JASH MEHTA 12

2. Sophisticated

Databases

3. Dashboards

Customers will get access to rich UI

healthcare Apps and Web Portals.

Company gets access to

sophisticated databases which have

automated data entry and data

privacy.

For analyzing trends and patterns

for overall success of wellness

activities there will be dashboards

prepared for the senior

management in the company

Report Time Quality Resources Efficiency

Time to generate a tracking report

in the future system/ Time to

generate a tracking report in the

current system

No. of errors in the reports in the

future system/ No. of errors in the

reports in the current system

No. of people/tools involved in

generating reports in the future

system/ No. of people/tools

involved in generating reports in the

current system

No. of non-updated records in the

reports of the future systems/ No.

of non-updated records in the

reports of the current systems