Children's National Hospital Division of Pharmacy boosted its pharmacy operational efficiency by merging datasets across its workflow platforms into a central data repository, from which many co-variables were then accounted for. With aggregated workload data from 180+ employees across 10,000 shifts, they implemented user-friendly dashboards, ensuring accuracy through collaboration. 

The result? Major operational and clinical improvements, highlighting the power of data integration and automation in healthcare. This signals a bright future for efficiency with advancements in automation, predictive AI, and data analytics, poised to revolutionize pharmacy operations and patient care. Upon implementation, one of the Operations Manager voiced being “empowered to track, trend, and share employee metrics during their monthly 1on1s with their direct reports especially now being able to account for differences in workload in different shifts, days, and whether training or not”.

^{Fig 1: Lifecycle of medication in the hospital. Each stage of the medication lifecycle has different disconnected technology platforms with different datasets needed to be merged into a data warehouse.}

Healthcare organizations face a data explosion, with the sector generating a significant share of global data. Despite this, healthcare lags in data utilization due to privacy concerns and disjointed systems. Children’s National Hospital, like many others, operates various disconnected platforms, hindering data analysis and workflow understanding. Manual data handling strains resources, urging the need for automated solutions. To enhance efficiency and patient care, hospitals are turning to digital health strategies, integrating analytics platforms. Children’s National Hospital aimed to streamline pharmacy data management through automation, addressing staffing challenges and burnout. This report outlines the implementation process and key insights gained.

Setting the Stage: Navigating Pharmacy Innovation

Children’s National Hospital, recognized as a top-ranking facility in neonatal intensive care and overall pediatric care by U.S. News & World Report, prioritizes pediatric well-being. With a dedicated team of over 180 professionals, patient safety remains paramount. To improve medication management, the hospital sought modernization. Recognizing the inefficiency of Excel, which consumed 25 hours monthly and incurred extra costs, the pharmacy initiated a digital analytics pilot. Technical hurdles and data inaccuracies necessitated a transition to streamline medication lifecycle management.

The Blueprint for Pharmacy Efficiency

To meet diverse data reporting needs like daily huddle, Department of Health DOH on-demand, and C-suite reporting, an integrated platform was sought. Preceding tool development, similar organizations were studied for best practices. Some of those studied included a rural Maryland hospital analytics-driven approach with reduced spending on acetaminophen by 78%, a multihospital system in Central NC using clinical analytics to monitor high-risk medications, and a large multihospital and clinical system in South Florida streamlining its formulary after acquiring more hospitals and clinics to its network.

Critical platforms were integrated in phase I, with less critical ones and financial data slated for phase II. Real-time reporting measures encompassed dose preparation and verification efficiency, shift efficiency, dispenses to outside clinics, and controlled substance dispenses. Validation involved collaborative efforts between the Division of Pharmacy Services team and the analytics platform provider's Director of Healthcare Consulting and Implementation.

Powering Pharmacy Performance

Post-implementation, the platform analyzed eight real-time datasets, covering over 180 employees and 10,000 shifts, providing comprehensive insights into operational and clinical efficiency. Access to real-time dashboards centralized data from the entire medication lifecycle, allowing for streamlined measurement of performance indicators. Integration of previously siloed platforms enhanced leadership's visibility into employee efficiency, resulting in a 75.5% reduction in open shift hours. The dashboards facilitated accurate staff probation decisions and reduced manual data entry, freeing up 25 hours monthly in bandwidth. Phase II integration included census and capacity data, enabling predictive staffing level assessments with <5% variance to actual.

Navigating Challenges Learned in Pharmacy Automation

The Division of Pharmacy at Children's National learned key lessons in automating and integrating data tracking and would like to share for others considering adopting new data and analytics platforms. They include:

• Buy-in: Securing support from leadership and frontline staff is crucial, emphasizing increased efficiency and improved outcomes.
• Time: Phase 1 took over 300 hours across 6-8 months, requiring adequate bandwidth and avoiding peak busy seasons.
• Technological: Managing IT governance, including HIPAA compliance, and addressing cybersecurity concerns with the IT department are essential. Renegotiating contracts with existing vendors may be necessary.
• Project staff-mix: Some staff lacked a blend of clinical and technical expertise, hindering effective integration and tailoring of the analytics software. Avoid using a non-clinical project manager and rather utilize a pharmacist with both clinical and technical knowledge to facilitate quicker implementation.

The Future of Data Automation in Healthcare

Automating data analysis fits the future of healthcare, aligning with digital health trends. Recent advancements include vaccine management and sterile automated compounding. Predictive analytics and AI are increasingly vital in diagnosis, treatment, and regulation. Predictive AI can enhance pharmacy efficiency by forecasting drug demand and managing medications. Integration with Cerner EHR aims to bolster analytical trends, identify cost-saving opportunities, and improve safety reporting.

Conclusion

Implementing a unified data platform improved pharmacy efficiency and real-time reporting at Children’s National Hospital. Integrating clinical and operational data is crucial for hospital effectiveness. As healthcare automation advances, digital analytics platforms are vital for capturing and enhancing clinical performance.

We urge other healthcare systems to merge data and share results to maximize efficiency and outcomes.