Evergreen 3.0: Purposeful productivity
Depending on your role at Intermountain Health, you may not feel like you have much direct influence over actions that could help us implement $300 million in Evergreen 3.0 cost savings and increased revenue so we can secure our stable financial future.
But there are two things nearly everyone can have a positive effect on: discretionary spending and productivity.
Discretionary spending describes optional expenses that are ‘nice to have’ but not critical to patient care – for example, travel, conferences that don’t earn continuing medical education, ‘swag,’ etc.
Productivity is:
A measure of how efficiently and effectively we serve our patients.
Based on hours that are budgeted to be worked vs. how many actual hours are worked.
Calculated by dividing all your department’s worked hours by your department’s unit of service.
Our Peaks Region productivity goal is for 100% of departments in 100% of our hospitals to achieve their budgeted productivity targets.
Why productivity?
Productivity is an essential operational function of all healthcare systems to effectively manage our resources in line with patient care needs.
Good stewardship of our labor allows us to enhance our quality of care and provide excellent service to our internal and external stakeholders. It frees up more resources to reinvest in our people, capital, equipment and technology.
Meeting our 2026 productivity budgets is critical to our ability of our Evergreen 3.0 plan to reach positive earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization (EBIDA) by the end of 2027. Maintaining 100% productivity alone could account for up to 10% of the $300 million target.
Impacts of productivity
All healthcare systems set productivity expectations as part of daily operations; it’s not new or unique to Intermountain Health.
Some caregivers may express concerns about cuts to hours or positions. When we think about labor management, we often only think about time and hours worked, but it’s important to remember that stewarding labor well means having a multifaceted approach that addresses who, how, and what (people, processes, workload).
o Who - time, spend (premium pay, overtime, etc.), skill mix - are the right people there, working to the top of their licenses?
o How – are our processes as efficient as possible? Are all steps in our processes value-added, and is there any waste we can remove?
o Workload – can we identify trends or patterns in the volumes, and use those to better balance staffing? Are certain days and times busier than others? We’re confident we can meet and exceed our goals together.
Productivity success is realistic and attainable
Many Peaks Region teams are already achieving or exceeding 100% productivity. For example, the Imaging team has identified building blocks for consistently meeting their goals. Some of their tips and tools:
Track volumes, hours worked, who flexed, orientation time, and productivity daily with team leaders.
Engage everyone in solving the productivity puzzle. Ensure all caregivers are aware of daily productivity.
Update your unit’s data and look at productivity every day; adjust staffing as needed.
Review historical data around volumes to identify trends and adjust. Do certain days or times have lower volumes?
Explore ways to achieve incremental efficiencies based on your data. Do you need to have caregivers on site during certain times, or can they be on call? Do you need caregivers on call at all during certain times?
Cross-train team members so they can flex away from lower volume to higher volume needs.
Build a culture of mutual support, where caregivers know that everyone will share responsibility equitably for flexing shifts and covering for each other.
Hospital, regional and enterprise experts are available to provide coaching and help with teams who are struggling to meet productivity. Reach out to Megan.Nunnelly@imail.org for more information.