I'm new in the executive role in a TRENDSTAR site; what can TRENDSTAR do for me?

TRENDSTAR is a terrific resource which can help you understand what makes your healthcare organization tick. By combining activity, cost and revenue, you can obtain a clear picture of your business, evaluate new projects, monitor performance and make clear decisions based on objective information.

I'm new to TRENDSTAR, but I've used other systems like Avega or TSI; how does TRENDSTAR compare?

Great news, the core concepts behind all three products are the same, and from an executive perspective, you can expect pretty much the same capabilities. There can be variations in how these systems are implemented and the data available. You should work with your decision support staff to make sure they understand your requirements. For example, if your predecessor did not invest in developing sophisticated cost accounting data, you need to understand the data you have, and if needed, set direction to get where you want to be.

We feel like we're using just a fraction of TRENDSTAR's capabilities; how can we get more out of it?

TRENDSTAR is so broad in its capabilities that many users just choose a few to focus on. From time to time it is useful to review what the system offers and to reset your direction. It helps to have a resource like your account manager or YMS take a look at what you are doing now and make some suggestions on possible opportunity areas. This will take a lot less time than trying to study marketing materials and documentation.

We have lots of data on different PC systems; is there some way to integrate this data into a single report card for everyone to use?

TRENDSTAR's data model can be extended to incorporate additional data types like denials, case management variances and quality indicators. TRENDSTAR can supply the integrated information directly to users through on-line presentation tools like ds.Pathfinder, Horizon Business Insight (HBI) and even on paper through MS/Access single page analyses such as physician report cards. For assistance on ds.Pathfinder, HBI or MS/Access, give Yardley a call.

The IT department is planning to build a data warehouse and/or data marts to meet our user needs; can TRENDSTAR play a role?

Most definitely! TRENDSTAR plays a role as both generator and consumer of warehouse and data mart data. Because there are such a variety of approaches, it helps to get some advice from your account manager or Yardley on how TRENDSTAR would best fit into a specific configuration. Depending on where you are in the process, you may also want to take a look at the Horizon Performance Manager (HPM) data warehouse.

We are building Intranet services for use throughout the organization; can TRENDSTAR help us in any way? TRENDSTAR can supply vital performance information that belongs on your intranet. If you haven't seen it yet, McKesson offers a terrific intranet solution called WebTREND which enables distribution of both TRENDSTAR and data from other sources. You should also consider using your intranet to supply information about your decision support capabilities to end users. This enables you to educate users and reduce burden on your staff. Yardley offers a quick start on this via a predefined decision support department intranet template. This is one of the highest ROI projects to stretch your resources.

In our facility, TRENDSTAR is run by the Finance Department. How can we organize so that everyone gets what they need from TRENDSTAR?

Not an uncommon problem. Finance sometimes wants the control to ensure quality and integrity of the data and analysis, but this can result in bottlenecks to access. This is a delicate question that each facility must develop its own answer for. The best clients have developed a multi-disciplinary approach which provides strong financial support but includes MIS, quality management, case management and managed care as direct system users and provides education and communication to ensure quality.

Our main TRENDSTAR user has moved on to other things; Help!

Take care of your TRENDSTAR users; you often don't realize how valuable they are until they are gone, taking their years of experience with the system, your data and your processes. You should be keeping some depth in your team, cross training, and providing growth opportunities. If you are down to your last user, and they leave, Yardley can help you bridge the gap by supplying Yardley and other resources to get your though the crunch. Try to get us involve before the user leaves, to help understand and document your processes while they are still available.

We have a new TRENDSTAR user, and they're just getting up to speed. We suggest you get that user to regional training ASAP.

This may be difficult, but make a commitment to get it done. On the job training alone often gives a distorted view and is demoralizing for a user who craves the bigger picture. You may want to plan with your account manager or Yardley how the user will get educated and brought up to speed in the most efficient manner. One of the best ways to bring a user along is, after training, working on a related project with experienced resources such as Yardley. Yardley can also provide on-site training resources.

We are getting killed by managed care contracts; how can TRENDSTAR help us get our revenue under control?

In the game of managed care, "to the information-proficient go the spoils." TRENDSTAR has your historical patient activity, cost and revenue by insurance plan, so it's a great starting point for managed care contract analysis. There are two potential avenues: 1) how are our current contracts doing, and 2) how will a potential contract look. Depending on your systems configuration, TRENDSTAR and/or Pathways Contract Management offer a means of computing expected contract revenue, which can be compared to actual payments. The best TRENDSTAR clients maintain a strong link between the managed care department and decision support, so that standards for analysis can be applied to any contract using benchmark patient claims sets. If you think a contract is too hard to model, ask Yardley. We've successfully handled some of the nation's strangest contracts using TRENDSTAR

How can TRENDSTAR help us figure out our profitability by contract, product line and doctor?

The essential ingredients are complete patient activity, a reasonable costing method, actual or expected payments and means of organizing the patient data by product line. TRENDSTAR provides the tools and data elements for each, but you may not have each area set up and ready to go. Yardley can help you identify the priority areas to address to bring your profitability analysis up to speed as quickly and cost effectively as possible.

Our Quality Management manager is looking for tools; how can TRENDSTAR help them?

First of all, don't let them get distracted by other analysis tools. There are a ton of tools aimed at the quality department niche, many of which are redundant with TRENDSTAR. Quality tools that are complementary with TRENDSTAR generally provide the ability to capture additional data by patient, such as clinical variances or denials. State database tools and on-line reporting and query tools are usually a waste of both time and money, since this kind of analysis can be done by TRENDSTAR if you know where to get the data. Yardley can assist in providing state data, developing external benchmarks and integrating additional data sources into TRENDSTAR analysis.

We're having a tough time getting and keeping staff to run TRENDSTAR.

Yardley can advise on department organization structure, mission, policies, education for users, and other tools that will take pressure off your staff and enable them to be more productive. Yardley can also assist in placing temporary staffing and can supply placement service references for obtaining permanent staff.

We've already been through training; now what do we do?

Your users will be exposed to a broad range of capabilities in training. The key to obtaining value is to reinforce those lessons as quickly as possible. Yardley can supply on-line and on-site training, troubleshooting and coaching. Let us know when we can help by using the Contact Yardley button in the panel to the left.