Reduction in Service Level Agreement Turnaround Time

Problem

Between May and December, a total of 2,050 Bridge Routine cases were submitted. Of those, 266 cases or 13% failed to meet the established Service Level Agreement turnaround time of 30 days. Missed turnaround times resulted in client dissatisfaction and strained internal workflows. Improvement was required to increase the percentage of cases meeting the Service Level Agreement and to better support customers and colleagues.

Bridge Routine cases represented 22 percent of total case inventory. New Bridge Routine requests accounted for 46.9% of all Bridge Routine cases, making this a high volume and high impact workload that directly affected client experience and operational efficiency.

Solution

• Integrated Bridge Routine Requirements Form: Client facing intake form that standardized submission criteria, ensured complete and accurate data capture, and was accessible to all colleagues and clients within the case workflow.

• Integrated Bridge Routine Handbook: Internal reference for colleagues providing step by step guidance for scoping, creating, and testing Bridge Routine cases, including documented exception handling and in case system accessibility to support consistent execution.

Results & Value

• 2.97-day average reduction in turnaround time

• Increase in Service Level Agreement met from 87% to 95%

• Reduced case touches by avg of 3 per case

• Delivered $992K in annualized cost avoidance per client across 300 clients

What clients are saying

“I shared your Bridge Routine Request Form with my Revenue Cycle Operations team here at Dignity Health – Yavapai Regional Medical Center and we collectively agreed that the form is fantastic. It is exactly what we needed to capture the proper data elements to request a bridge routine or custom warning which makes all of our jobs easier and the creation of BRs/warnings more efficient. We sincerely appreciate you.”

• Cassandra Smith (Dignity Health – Yavapai Regional Medical Center)