Utilizing data and artificial intelligence to optimize treatment room scheduling and staffing.

Authors

Larry Bilbrey, Sr

Larry Edward Bilbrey

Tennessee Oncology PLLC., Nashville, TN

Larry Edward Bilbrey, Harshavardhana Paramasiviah, Shridar Iyengar, Bhaskar Anepu, Susan A Frailley, Stephen Matthew Schleicher, Ram Iyengar, Natalie R. Dickson

Organizations

Tennessee Oncology PLLC., Nashville, TN, Smirta, Inc, North Brunswick, NJ, Tennessee Oncology, Nashville, TN

Research Funding

No funding received
None.

Background: Tennessee Oncology is a large community oncology practice with over 30 clinics providing 89,000 treatments per year across Tennessee and northern Georgia. Tennessee Oncology’s scheduling application was unable to optimally schedule treatment appointments. This scheduling gap was causing frequent patient delays and employee extended hours. Tennessee Oncology partnered with Smirta, Inc., to develop a data and artificial intelligence (AI) driven scheduling overlay platform that would optimize and simplify cancer treatment scheduling as well as predict scheduling patterns and resource needs. Methods: Named OncoSmart, the scheduling optimization platform ingests historic scheduling data, detailed clinic configuration data including provider and nursing schedules, and available resource data such as treatment room chairs. Utilizing AI, the platform generates optimal scheduling recommendations matching the specific set of services that need to be scheduled. The platform overlays the current scheduling app and provides dynamic, real-time recommendations based on current resource (treatment room, provider, etc.) schedule availabilities and bookings. Tennessee Oncology piloted the scheduling optimization platform at 1 clinic and has currently expanded the pilot to 12 additional clinics. Results: After various ranges of clinic pilot times (6 months to 2 years), Tennessee Oncology treatment volumes have increased by 7%. In parallel to this increase, the optimization platform has helped decrease extended hours by over 32%. The original pilot site has shown major improvement in all 4 primary key performance indicators (KPI): treatment volume +12%; Chair utilization +12%; treatment delay -9%; extended hours -82%. Additionally, using the platform’s predictive analytics capabilities, analyses have been completed to generate optimal treatment scheduling patterns as well as optimal treatment nursing staffing models. Conclusions: Within a short period after deployment, Smirta Inc’s OncoSmart has helped Tennessee Oncology identify better treatment scheduling options for these 13sites. The scheduling optimization platform has proven to be very effective in identifying optimal treatment scheduling strategies and in identifying critical resource bottlenecks. The platform’s clinic management, optimization, nurse assignment, business intelligence, and resource management modules has empowered Tennessee Oncology to better manage critical clinical resources and reduce staff overtime during a period of growth.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2022 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session B

Track

Palliative and Supportive Care,Technology and Innovation in Quality of Care,Quality, Safety, and Implementation Science

Sub Track

Use of IT/Analytics to Improve Quality

Citation

J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 28; abstr 436)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2022.40.28_suppl.436

Abstract #

436

Poster Bd #

G9

Abstract Disclosures