Avant-garde Health and Gundersen Health System Partner to Improve Care

BOSTON, Oct. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Avant-garde Health, an award-winning provider of actionable insights for hospitals and health systems to improve the value of care, partnered with Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisc., to measure the true cost of total knee-replacement surgeries, and drive savings and quality. The results of the analysis were prominently featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, and will be discussed in a webinar Wednesday, Nov. 7.

Avant-garde Health and special guest Lisa Wied, MBA, administrative vice president, Gundersen Health System, will discuss their continued efforts to pinpoint care delivery costs and drive quality improvement. Register for the webinar here.

Insights-Driven Improvements
Gundersen has demonstrated a historic commitment to improving the value of its care. Though Gundersen's inpatient cost and readmission rate for joint replacements already were better than national averages in 2016, its leadership was determined to excel even further and so began working with Avant-garde Health that year.

Avant-garde's CareMeasurement solution highlighted a number of substantial opportunities, which led to improved patient education, OR efficiency, and streamlined post-operative care.  For example, same-day physical therapy increased by 68 percent, and use of higher-cost post-acute facilities decreased by 22 percent. Cost disparities in supplies also led surgeons to switch to generic bone cement that costs 57 percent less than alternatives, without sacrificing quality.

Avant-garde's insights ultimately helped Gundersen reduce its knee replacement costs by 18 percent, in less than two years. "Gundersen is at the forefront of using advanced analytics to improve patient care and hospital operations," says Avant-garde's CEO, Derek Haas. "Their commitment to providing the best care possible inspires us to build the solutions medical providers need to make informed decisions."

Ongoing Impact
Gundersen has since expanded its orthopedics work with Avant-garde to improve total shoulder replacement and carpal tunnel surgery, yielding results such as decreased length of stay, improved outcomes, eliminated supply waste and cost savings. The health system is also leveraging Avant-garde's insights in neuroscience and cardiology, and is informing the development of new analytics in oncology.

"Having a comprehensive, accurate and reliable understanding of what it costs to deliver care is incredibly important for any health system," Wied shares. "Through Avant-garde Health, we've gained deep insights into our performance, which enable us to identify and tackle new opportunities. The cultural shift at Gundersen may represent the biggest impact of all. Stakeholders across the enterprise are finding common ground in information that previously didn't exist."

About Avant-garde Health
Founded in 2014, Avant-garde Health is building a national network of leading health care providers committed to improving their care value. Avant-garde's solutions generate comprehensive, accurate, relevant and actionable insights that enable hospitals and health systems to understand true costs across the care continuum, benchmark performance, and pursue opportunities to maximize quality and improve profitability. Learn more at avantgardehealth.com.

About Gundersen Health System
Gundersen Health System is a non-profit, comprehensive integrated healthcare network headquartered in La Crosse, Wis. With nearly 8,000 employees serving 21 counties in western Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, and northeast Iowa, including six hospitals and more than 60 clinic locations, Gundersen's purpose is to enhance the health and well-being of our communities and enrich every life we touch. Learn more about our excellence in patient care, education, research and something we call Love + Medicine at gundersenhealth.org.

Media Contacts:

Avant-garde Health

Michelle Higginson

Mobile: 781-640-8812;  email: [email protected] 

Or

Gundersen Health

Chris Stauffer

Mobile: 608-790-8100; email: [email protected]

SOURCE Avant-garde Health