Custom management tool development
Your operation is unique. That’s why many times the solution you need isn’t commercially available or hasn’t been developed yet. This could be a form or a piece of software or even a tool or approach. BPM looks at your entire operation and your desired outcomes before recommending a solution. Sometimes the solution is obvious. Sometimes it exists but was developed for another industry. Other times it can be created from scratch with just a little effort.

Utilization & spend file conversion
Transactional systems are good at transacting, but they typically aren’t very good at displaying historical information in ways that help you make better decisions.  This is too bad because these systems contain nearly all the valuable data. 

Often output from these systems comes in the form of giant text files.  These text files can frustrate users; even those who know how to import them into Excel, because the files often display individual transactions on multiple lines of text.  Further complicating the matter, these text files often contain “header” information followed by one or more “details” so a direct data import is out of the question.

BPM specializes in pulling data out of transactional system and presenting it in ways that are helpful to end users.  This could be just a straight conversion to Excel or development of a database, but might also be a website residing for the organization’s intranet and available to everyone (or perhaps just those with the right password).

Data extraction and analysis
One of the most important functions of any department is the development of next year’s budget.  And one of the best ways to estimate what might happen next year is to review what happened last year (or ideally over the past several years). 

But a lot of stuff happens during a year, and keeping track of it is often very difficult.   Many organization’s transaction-based financial systems aren’t much help either, because they are mostly interested in the individual transactions (see “Utilization & spend file conversion” above). 

BPM has can help by extracting data (years worth if necessary) and building a database around it.  The database can be configured with standard reports, or you might prefer to export the information for analysis in an Excel pivot table.  Pivot tables come with Excel and are powerful ways to view large amounts of information in as many ways as you can think of.   All you have to do is get all the information in one place and in the right format.  Balon Process Management can help you do this for a lot less than you think.

The best part is that we’ll set you up so that you can update the database as often as necessary.  This is very helpful for ongoing variance reporting.

Facilities and Safety program development
Years ago the Joint Commission began using the term “Information Collection and Evaluation System (ICES) to describe a way of managing an organization’s safety program.  In most hospitals this ICES is the Safety Committee, and in an ideal world it functions exactly this way.   Information is funneled into a central place, where it is examined and acted upon by a multidisciplinary team before it is communicated back to the organization at large.

BPM founder Brad Balon has re-tooled many hospital Safety Programs and has seen a lot of good and bad along the way.  This was not just handing off forms and making recommendations but the tough job of implementing those ideas and recommendations, often over periods of months and years.

Developed at the ground-level, the ezCompliance SuiteTM is an integrated safety program management infrastructure package that integrates the following into a seamless whole:

• Risk Assessments
• Interim Life Safety Assessments & Inspections
• Infection Control Risk Assessments & Inspections
• Management Plans
• Annual Reviews
• Indicators
• Recurring Safety Committee Reports
• Environmental Rounds
• Fire Safety Testing and Inspection
• Building Maintenance Program

Recently, BPM began offering electronic ILSA, ICRA and Environmental Rounds management capability.  Armed with a handheld device and customized forms, the organization conducts its rounds and inspections in much the same way as they always have.  However, once done they synchronize the handheld and the results of the test are sent to a website that the entire Safety Committee has access to.  The documentation is immediately available and can be used to drive and monitor corrective actions.

Operations augmentation
Many hospitals recognize the need for developing an equipment inventory, perhaps driven by a new computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).  Unfortunately, they aren’t staffed to manage the process so it winds up taking a long time.  Sometimes you just need a little help while you fill a hole in your operations team but hiring someone onto your payroll doesn’t make sense.  BPM can help by supplying just the right amount assistance based on your specific needs.

Intranet web site development
BPM has developed several custom data-driven web sites for hospital intranets.  In some cases they help users examine transactional data mined from other (e.g. Financial) systems (”Utilization & spend file conversion”).   In others they allow users to provide feedback or to fill out a survey.  In all cases these custom solutions were developed and implemented for the organizations’ specific needs and way of doing business, and for a lot less than you might think.