Q&A with Sean McKibben, MBA
President and COO
Mount Carmel West Hospital
Columbus, Ohio

MedicalLab Management: What is the nature of Mt. Carmel West hospital’s relationship with Chi Solutions?

Sean McKibben: Mt. Carmel’s initial engagement with Chi Solutions began in 1997 when we partnered to design an integrated delivery system for our core laboratory. At that time, the hospital’s laboratory functions were quite disparate and there was a recognized need to centralize operations into a true core lab format. The decision was made to bring in Chi Solutions based on their industry expertise and they developed a comprehensive core laboratory plan that still exists today and is running effectively.

Based on that initial success, we reengaged the firm in 2011 to perform an operational assessment of our laboratory service line to ensure we were meeting best practice guidelines, industry benchmarks, and other productivity metrics. Again, their representatives produced a solid assessment that gave us insight into areas where we were exceeding standards, as well as opportunities for improvement. Most recently, in 2012, we began to seek out ways to leverage our capabilities and augment our laboratory outreach operations. Chi Solutions performed a focused market assessment confirming a significant opportunity to grow our lab outreach volume. In late 2013, their representatives took control of the management, sales, IT, and finance support for our laboratory outreach service line.

MLM: What were the primary needs Mt. Carmel West sought to have Chi Solutions address in this most recent engagement?

McKibben: Laboratory outreach is highly competitive among health systems and private, national organizations, and we felt we were not maximizing the opportunities available to us. At the time, we were providing lab services to many of our employed medical group practices, but further outreach was not seen as a strategic business priority at the time. We engaged Chi Solutions in order to affect positive change in this regard.

The first key to this engagement was the provision of a representative to manage outreach operations and service for us in house. With numerous interactions and requests from physician offices daily, we were provided a representative from day one to make sure outreach operations were optimized, and that representative has done a fantastic job.

The second key component was the provision of an experienced laboratory sales executive to ensure we could aggressively sell our services to physicians in the marketplace. Chi consultants with professional sales backgrounds have helped develop customer relationship management tools for us and shaped our services into proper business lines to not only attract, but also retain, new clients. Thus far, this approach has rendered very positive outcomes; since January 2014, our lab outreach volume is up 24%.

MLM: How do the Chi Solutions sales representatives benefit both sides of the outreach relationship?

McKibben: A key benefit of employing experienced sales staff is their ability to meet directly with physicians in the field and discuss specific testing and diagnostic needs across service lines; regardless of specialty, these representatives gather information for a needs assessment and also present the full capabilities of Mt. Carmel West. We engage in a monthly operations meeting comprising our finance executive, business development director, service line director, and myself, along with the Chi representatives to discuss existing operations, future growth, and targets. To maintain the level of growth we have experienced, a monthly meeting is a minimum requirement.

MLM: What advice would you give to other hospitals looking to establish an outreach program or augment an existing one using a consultant?

McKibben: From the onset, the market assessment really illuminated the volume of potential outreach we had within our capabilities that we were not targeting. This detailed demand study clearly indicated not only prime areas we were not yet engaging, but also some of the types of testing we could add to make ourselves more appealing. This study was the catalyst, because there were more physicians not utilizing our services than were.

We hear a lot today about population health management and networks narrowing, so we are acknowledging lab outreach as a strategic imperative moving forward into more risk-based contracting. Ultimately, Chi Solutions has helped us manage laboratory operating costs while maintaining a high level of quality and service for our patients.

Sean McKibben, MBA, is President and COO of Mount Carmel West Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He is a CPA and a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.