Press Releases Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Strata Decision Technology

CHICAGO, September 24, 2021 — At a time when hospitals and health systems are under more pressure than ever, over 1,800 attendees from over 275 organizations attended LIFT21, the Strata Virtual Users Conference. During this three-day event, attendees heard from national healthcare centers of excellence leveraging the StrataJazz^{^®} cloud solution and EPSi on-prem platform from Strata to drive their financial planning, analytics and performance.

These sessions were led by thought leaders from Cone Health (North Carolina), Edward-Elmhurst Health (Illinois), Intermountain Healthcare (Utah), John Muir Health (California), Keck Medicine of USC (California), MD Anderson Cancer Center (Texas), Northwestern Medical Center (Vermont), Northwestern Medicine (Illinois), Ochsner Health (Louisiana), Saint Luke’s Health System of Kansas City (Missouri), Texas Children’s Hospital (Texas) and Texas Health Resources (Texas).

“COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on hospitals and health systems in every community across our country. While our customers have never been under more pressure, it was incredibly encouraging to see the overwhelming response to our conference and hear stories from so many health systems that are leveraging Strata solutions to deliver even better care,” stated Dan Michelson, Chief Executive Officer of Strata. “We are honored to support the heroes on the front lines and behind the scenes of this pandemic who have been stewarding their communities and our country through this incredibly challenging time.”

The acquisition of EPSi by Strata in 2020 created a single company that now serves over 50 percent of U.S. healthcare including over 2,000 hospitals. LIFT21 created an opportunity for StrataJazz and EPSi users to come together, share best practices and learn from each other in over 40 thought leadership sessions. The combination of Strata and EPSi has created a clear market standard that CFO’s and their organizations can rely on to help them better analyze, plan and perform financially in support of their clinical mission.

Strata Releases Report – Signals, Trends and KPIs: The Changing Face of Healthcare Finance

During LIFT21, Strata released its latest industry report – StrataSphere Research Report: Signals, Trends and KPIs: The Changing Face of Healthcare Finance. This research provides an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on the financial and operational health of hospitals and health systems. The report leverages data from StrataSphere, a healthcare provider research and comparative analytics collaborative representing a cohort of over 700 hospitals from Strata’s customer base of over 2,000 hospitals within over 400 health systems across the U.S

Key findings from this research include the following:

2021 net patient revenue margin is near zero: Median operating expense is 99.2 percent of net patient revenue (0.8 percent patient revenue margin) for 2021. It was 105.8 percent (-.5.8 percent margin) in 2020, and 96.9 percent (3.1 percent margin) in the baseline year of 2019.
Inpatient costs per case rose significantly since 2019: Inpatient cost per case has increased by 16 percent in 2021 and 11 percent in 2020 compared to the baseline year of 2019. Additionally, Case mix was up to 1.46 in 2021 and 1.43 in 2021 versus 1.37 in the 2019 baseline year. This is an 8.7 percent increase from 2019 to 2021.
COVID-19 has shifted volumes with sustained impact: Throughout 2021, there are 5-7 percent lower inpatient volumes including COVID-19 patients. While June almost returned to 2019 levels, COVID-19 waves continue to crowd out other specialties.
The shift of key inpatient procedures is accelerating: There is an accelerating shift of key, traditional inpatient procedures to the outpatient setting. For example, Primary Knee Replacement outpatient volume is 74 percent higher than inpatient volumes in 2021.

New Product Innovations from Strata Highlighted During the Conference

During LIFT21, Strata shared the latest innovations and enhancements to StrataJazz and EPSi. Highlights included the following:

StrataJazz Cloud Solution: Innovations highlighted included redesigns of both Strata’s Cost Model and Contract Analytics, enhanced Billing Summary Modeling, at-a-glance Staffing Variance Analysis, a new module for Real-Time Workforce Management, a new cost benchmarking tool called StrataSphere Compare, and Advanced Analytics for creating advanced visualizations and dashboards.
EPSi On Prem Solution: Highlights included net new features in Costing, Product Line Analytics, Budgeting, Data Studio and Reporting as well as advancements in technology, browser support and security. Additionally, as many EPSi users are moving to Strata’s cloud solution, several sessions shared best practices from the many organizations that have already made this transition.
Advisory Services: New services were highlighted for managing change as well as for implementing sustainable future state models. Strata Advisory Services deploys functional and operational experts who help hospitals and health systems transition to advanced planning, drive from data to action and facilitate collaborative improvement with operators and clinicians.

Best Practices in Decision Strategy Highlighted During Keynote Sessions

As the decisions made by hospitals and health systems have never been more challenging or more critical, the keynote sessions focused on decision strategy, specifically the decisions you make and what you make of those decisions. Strata is making the following keynote sessions available to all healthcare stakeholders:

Annie Duke – The Decisions You Make: One of the first women to win the World Series of Poker and author of the best-selling book Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke is one the world’s leading experts in helping executives tackle what is perhaps the most critical part of their job – making good decisions. Access Annie Duke’s session here.
Chris Nikic – What You Make of Your Decisions: Recently awarded the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance by EPSN, Chris Nikic was the first person with Down syndrome to complete the Ironman. Chris shared his story about “getting 1 percent better every day.” See Chris Nikic’s story here.

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Decision Technology provides an innovative set of software and service solutions to help healthcare providers better analyze, plan, and perform in support of caring for their community and reducing the cost of care. Our customer base includes over 2,000 hospitals and over 400 healthcare delivery systems. Founded in 1996, our mission is to Help Heal Healthcare™. For more information, please go to https://www.stratadecision.com.

CHICAGO, February 2, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Strata Decision Technology (Strata), a pioneer and leader in the development of cloud-based financial planning, analytics and performance tools for healthcare, announced today that the company’s StrataJazz^{^®} application earned top honors as the KLAS Category Leader for Business Decision Support in the 2021 Best in KLAS: Software and Services report. With a score of 90.1 out of 100, StrataJazz is one of the highest rated analytics solutions in all of healthcare information technology.

This is the 15^th consecutive year that Strata Decision Support solutions have earned the coveted No. 1 spot in KLAS’s end-of-year ranking of healthcare IT software and services vendors. The annual Best in KLAS ratings are based on feedback from tens of thousands of interviews conducted throughout the year with healthcare providers. In the report, 100 percent of Strata customers stated that Strata is “part of their long-term plans” – a score over 10 points higher than the average for business decision support solutions reviewed by KLAS. Close to 100 percent of Strata customers indicated that they “would buy again” with a score 9 points higher than the segment average.

According to Adam Gale, KLAS President, “Each year, thousands of healthcare professionals across the globe take the time to share their voice with KLAS. They know that sharing their perspective helps vendors to improve and helps their peers make better decisions. These conversations are a constant reminder to me of how necessary accurate, honest, and impartial reporting is in the healthcare industry. The Best in KLAS report and the awards it contains set the standard of excellence for software and services firms. Vendors who win the title of ‘Best in KLAS’ should celebrate and remember that providers now accept only the best from their products and services. The Best in KLAS award serves as a signal to provider and payer organizations that they should expect excellence from the winning vendors.”

Strata solutions are used by over 2,000 hospitals and 400 healthcare delivery systems across the U.S., helping healthcare providers better plan, analyze and perform, driving margin to fuel their clinical mission.

“In a year when healthcare providers faced the worst financial crisis in the history of healthcare, we are incredibly proud that our solutions were able to help and that we were named the No. 1 in KLAS for the fifteenth consecutive year,” said Dan Michelson, Chief Executive Officer of Strata. “Now, more than ever, we feel very fortunate to be able to help our customers tackle the challenges facing them as they seek to improve financial and clinical outcomes, driving more value for their providers, their organization and the communities that they serve.”

Comments from Customers

In determining its rankings, KLAS collects both quantitative and qualitative feedback from healthcare providers on the technologies they use. The following are selected, anonymous commentaries by Strata customers, reported by KLAS:

Return on Investment: “I feel like we are getting our money’s worth. The information that we can get out of the system for analytics goes so far beyond what anybody can get out of a financial accounting system, and the system has really driven a lot of discussion about things that our operational leaders would not have otherwise known were going on.” – Director, January 2021
Service and Support: “Strata Decision Technology’s technical support is hands down the best I have ever worked with. Anytime we need to put in a ticket for a technical problem or work through an error, their approach is unparalleled. I have never worked with anybody whose follow-up service is as good as Strata Decision Technology’s.” – Manager, January 2021
Functionality and Upgrades: “StrataJazz Decision Support is just heaven. It is wonderful because it is automated and streamlined. It does everything for us. When we would do costing in our previous system, we had to do everything manually. With StrataJazz Decision Support, once things are set up, it is very easy to go through everything. We just point and click. We have all our entities, which we couldn’t get in our previous system. StrataJazz Decision Support is everything the vendor promised and more. We love the system and are so happy.” – Analyst / Coordinator, January 2021
Future Outlook: “Strata Decision Technology’s staff members are professional and knowledgeable. Our ideas are on the vendor’s radar. Strata Decision Technology is collaborative and listens to customers.” – Manager, January 2021

The full 2021 Best in KLAS: Software and Services report is available at www.klasresearch.com.

About KLAS

KLAS has been providing accurate, honest, and impartial insights for the healthcare IT (HIT) industry since 1996. The KLAS mission is to improve the world’s healthcare by amplifying the voice of providers and payers. The scope of our research is constantly expanding to best fit market needs as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. KLAS finds the hard-to-get HIT data by building strong relationships with our payer and provider friends in the industry. Learn more at www.klasresearch.com.

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Decision Technology provides an innovative set of software and service solutions to help healthcare providers better analyze, plan, and perform in support of caring for their community and reducing the cost of care. Our customer base includes over 2,000 hospitals and over 400 healthcare delivery systems. Founded in 1996, our mission is to Help Heal Healthcare^TM. For more information, please go to www.stratadecision.com.

Strata Decision Technology Receives #1 Ranking for Midsize Tech Companies in Annual Employee Survey on Most Engaged Cultures

CHICAGO, November 2, 2020 — Strata Decision Technology, a pioneer and leader in the development of cloud-based financial analytics, planning and performance tools for healthcare, has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2020 honor by the Chicago Tribune for a second year. Strata was the highest ranked midsize technology company on the list and third overall. Strata CEO Dan Michelson received a Special Award for the highest score based on employee responses to the statement “I have confidence in the leader of the company.”

Over 3,300 companies were invited to participate in an employee survey commissioned by the Chicago Tribune in partnership with Energage, a third-party research company. The survey was anonymous and focused on the 15 drivers of the most engaged cultures including everything from work-life balance to confidence in company leadership. Employees responded to a set of statements about their feelings toward their workplace, using a seven-point scale.

“Amid an incredibly challenging year, we are truly honored to be recognized by the Chicago Tribune as one of the top places to work,” stated Heidi Farrell, Vice President of People Operations at Strata. “Our focus is simple – to give our team the opportunity to work on something they care about with people they care about.”

For the past decade, Energage, formerly Workplace Dynamics, has been ranking workplaces in the Chicago area and the nation through employee surveys. The Top Workplaces award spotlights private, public, nonprofit and government organizations that earn the highest ratings. The companies that completed the survey were divided into three categories: small (fewer than 250 employees), midsize (250-999) and large (1,000 or more).

To learn more about what it’s like to work at Strata and what employees value most about the experience, visit the careers page.

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Decision Technology provides an innovative set of software and service solutions to help healthcare providers better analyze, plan and perform in support of caring for their community and reducing the cost of care. Our customer base includes over 2,000 hospitals and over 400 healthcare delivery systems. Founded in 1996, our mission is to Help Heal Healthcare^TM. For more information, please go to www.stratadecision.com.

Customer Base of the New Strata Accounts for Approximately 50% of the Hospital and Health System Spend in U.S. Healthcare

CHICAGO, October 15, 2020 — Strata Decision Technology (Strata) today announced that it has finalized the acquisition of the EPSi business from Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX), creating the gold standard in healthcare for financial analytics, planning and performance solutions. With a combined network of over 400 health systems and 2,000 hospitals and the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry for over a decade, the new Strata brings a unique set of software and service solutions to help healthcare providers better analyze, plan and perform in support of caring for their community and reducing the cost of care.

Spending on U.S. healthcare is expected to pass $4 trillion¹ in 2020 with approximately 50% of that spend, or $2 trillion, coming through healthcare providers.² Hospitals are under significant pressure, with average operating margins of 2% and over 30% operating at a loss. The coronavirus pandemic has driven significant increases in the cost of care coupled with major declines in patient and procedure volume, creating the biggest financial crisis in the history of U.S. healthcare.

The new Strata is uniquely positioned to help healthcare providers manage through the crisis and bend the cost curve, with a combined customer base representing approximately 50% of the $2 trillion provider spend in the U.S. healthcare system.

“The new Strata is the first company with the solutions and scale to help to solve the biggest problem in healthcare – the cost of it,” said Dan Michelson, Chief Executive Officer of Strata. “Hospitals and healthcare delivery systems have never been under more pressure and they are looking for a trusted partner to help. Bringing Strata and EPSi together creates one company with a customer base of over 400 healthcare delivery systems accounting for approximately 50% of provider spend in U.S. healthcare. There is now a clear market standard that CFO’s and their organizations can depend on to help them better analyze, plan and perform financially in support of their clinical mission. Every executive team at every health system is looking to understand and reduce the cost of care right now. We’re here to help.”

Strata and EPSi have been the recognized leaders in healthcare cost accounting for over a decade, with solutions rated No. 1 in KLAS for Business Decision Support 14 times. Advanced capabilities of the offerings include real-time and time-driven costing, providing the ability for healthcare providers to extract time-based data from existing systems in an automated fashion in order to better understand the actual cost of labor and supplies while leveraging real-time analytics and predictive variance alerts.

100% Commitment to EPSi

Strata is 100% committed to both the EPSi product and customer base. There are no plans to sunset the product, and investment in the product will continue. Customers may choose to transition to the other, more advanced technology and cloud solutions that Strata offers, but will not be forced into that transition. Additionally, EPSi customers will continue to work with their same team for implementation, support and optimization, and the Company will focus on continuing to find ways to enhance customer experience over time.

EPSi users will also have the opportunity to explore the other software and service solutions that Strata offers. Through the years, over 40 organizations have made the transition from EPSi to the cloud solutions from Strata. Today over 25 organizations use solutions from both EPSi and Strata together in the same healthcare delivery system. Strata will be working to accelerate innovation to help healthcare providers solve even more mission critical problems for their organizations.

A Complete Platform of Software and Service Solutions

Strata provides a complete platform of software and service solutions to help healthcare providers better analyze, plan and perform including:

Analytics: decision support, advanced cost accounting, real-time costing, time-driven costing, benchmarking and comparative analytics, product line analysis, contract modeling and management, risk-based and capitated contracts, strategic pricing, data visualization, data science collaboration
Planning: operating budgeting, dynamic planning, rolling forecasting, long range financial planning, strategic product budgeting, capital planning, capital tracking, equipment replacement
Performance: productivity, management reporting, clinical variation, initiative tracking, performance management, cost reduction, margin improvement

Additionally, with a significant number of academic medical centers, children’s hospitals and cancer centers now using solutions from Strata, the Company is in a unique position to support research in several areas including the cost of care through its StrataSphere™ data science collaborative.

Michelson continued, “We’re not a product, we’re a solution. And we’re not a short-term vendor, we’re a long-term partner, which is exactly what is needed as the problems in healthcare are stunningly complex. To solve them, you need to dive deep and then go deeper. It requires a complete commitment and focus on healthcare with a long-term track record that shows you can and will deliver. Since their founding, both Strata and EPSi have been exclusively focused on healthcare. For over 20 years, this is all we have done, and it will remain that way. Strata is and will be 100% dedicated to healthcare in everything we do, every single day. We’re here for the long-term and we’re here to make a difference.”

To learn more about the new Strata, visit us at www.stratadecision.com/thenewstrata.

About Strata Decision Technology

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of Health™. Connectivity empowers caregivers and consumers to make better decisions, delivering better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.allscripts.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

Sources:

¹ Office of the Actuary in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – National Health Expenditures Projections 2019-2028 – Forecast Summary – https://www.cms.gov/files/document/nhe-projections-2019-2028-forecast-summary.pdf

² Office of the Actuary in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – Nation’s health dollar: where it came from, where it went (PDF) – https://www.cms.gov/files/document/nations-health-dollar-where-it-came-where-it-went.pdf

CHICAGO, September 23, 2020 — A comprehensive six-month study of patient and procedure volume at 275 hospitals by Strata Decision Technology (Strata) revealed the significant financial and operational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. healthcare system. The National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker™ from Strata reveals the clinical and financial implications of COVID-19 treatment, details volume and revenue trends from the past six-months and documents the impact of telehealth adoption.

To analyze the impact of COVID-19, data scientists from Strata aggregated data from a cohort of 275 hospitals in 58 healthcare delivery systems, a subset of the over 1,000 hospitals and 220 healthcare delivery systems across the country that use the company’s StrataJazz^® financial planning, analytics, and performance platform. Collectively, the hospitals in the COVID-19 cohort serve nearly 86 million Americans, account for $81 billion in annual operating expense, represent all census regions, and treated over 160,000 COVID-19 patients.

The updated National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker reveals the following:

COVID-19 Analysis: Healthcare providers have quickly learned and heroically responded to COVID-19 as demonstrated by dramatically lower ventilator and mortality rates

COVID-19 inpatient volumes did not surge nationwide as expected and did not replace the dramatic decline in total admissions
Admission rates from the ED declined across all age cohorts, suggesting providers have developed more skill in identifying who has COVID-19 and corrected treatment
Admitted COVID-19 patients in the top seven DRGs have a length of stay 20% higher than non-COVID patients for the same DRG, justifying an increase in reimbursement
While ventilator use has declined dramatically, most COVID-19 patients who are on a ventilator stay on it for over 96 hours

Patient and Procedure Volume Analysis: The impact to inpatient and ER volumes has been significant and the new normal may force a wide-spread re-evaluation of financial models for hospitals

Inpatient volume has not fully recovered with inpatient procedures and surgeries still down significantly

Volumes now approaching 2019 levels, but lost volumes have not recovered
The “new normal” may be 90-95% of previous levels
Inpatient procedures and surgeries continue to trail 2019 levels, down 18.6% cumulatively, having a negative financial impact
Medical, not surgical service lines, have come back strongest as patients have focused on chronic, preventative, and screening care

Outpatient volume has recovered for some, but not for all

Volumes fell significantly, but have now recovered, down 56% at the start, but down only 1.5% for the past 30 days
Recovery is not evenly distributed, as some areas have come back strongly, while other care areas still lag
Volume rebound demonstrates ongoing recovery outside the inpatient setting, including new channels such as telehealth

Emergency room visits are still down by 25% nationally

Emergency Room (ER) care fell by 50% with people only going to the ER if essential
Potentially serious care, that normally comes to the ER, is still being avoided or is down
This decrease in ER visits also potentially reflects a return to the optimal role of the ER
ER volume is still down by approximately 25% nationally vs. 2019

Telehealth Analysis: Telehealth shows staying power as a new channel and will need to be evaluated and integrated into care planning in a thoughtful way

Telehealth filled a void during pandemic and was utilized for ~50% of telehealth-eligible office visits at peak as face-to-face visits dropped by 50%
In-person visits have rebounded, driving telehealth down to 11% of eligible visits and reflecting the current hands-on nature of healthcare
Contrary to the belief that technology is for the young, telehealth utilization was strong across age cohorts
Some visits types like behavioral health sustained telehealth volume better than others, while phone check-ins, basic follow-ups and consultations show decline

“The work of our hospitals and healthcare providers in both battling COVID-19 and saving lives has truly been heroic,” stated Dan Michelson, Chief Executive Officer of Strata Decision Technology. “The data from the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker will help all stakeholders understand that there are clear, significant, and long-term implications for our healthcare delivery system. They will need to think different and consider new approaches as they plan their road to recovery.”

National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker is Available for Free to All Stakeholders in Healthcare

The National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker was launched in May 2020 to help all stakeholders in healthcare understand the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. healthcare delivery system. The data behind the Tracker is from StrataSphere, Strata’s unique and comprehensive data-sharing platform that helps providers leverage the power of a network that represents approximately 25% of all provider spend in U.S. healthcare.

“This report should compel health systems to accelerate their move to value-based models of care, fast track digital health efforts, and evaluate how to reduce their cost of care delivery,” commented Steve Lefar, Executive Director of StrataSphere for Strata. “It is more important than ever to understand cost and revenue drivers today and in the future. The time is now for leaders to quickly evaluate and start making changes.”

StrataSphere currently includes over 100 participating health systems, representing more than

$150 billion in operating expense. Whereas existing comparative analytics and benchmarking solutions rely primarily on public datasets, StrataSphere provides accurate, actionable and timely comparisons of key metrics. StrataSphere utilizes machine learning to leverage trillions of data points from this network of providers already using StrataJazz for financial planning, analytics and

performance. For this reason, participation in StrataSphere requires no additional data submission or work effort.

The National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker is free and available at www.stratadecision.com/National-Patient-and-Procedure-Volume-Tracker/.

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Decision Technology provides an innovative cloud-based financial analytics and performance platform that is used by healthcare providers for financial planning, decision support and continuous improvement. Founded in 1996, the Company’s customer base includes 1,000 hospitals and many of the largest and most influential healthcare delivery systems in the U.S. The Company’s StrataJazz^® application is a single integrated software-as-a-service platform that includes modules for capital planning, continuous improvement, contract modeling, cost accounting, cost management, decision support, financial forecasting, management reporting, operational budgeting and performance improvement and strategic planning. The Company’s headquarters are in Chicago, IL. For more information, please visit www.stratadecision.com.

CHICAGO, September 22, 2020 — A record of over 1,500 attendees from over 200 healthcare delivery systems across the nation are coming together for Lift20, the Strata Decision Technology (Strata) virtual users conference. Over the course of two days, attendees will hear from national centers of excellence that leverage Strata’s #1 in KLAS, cloud-based StrataJazz^{^®} platform to drive financial planning, analytics, and performance in support of their clinical mission.

COVID-19 has had a devastating financial impact on hospitals and healthcare providers, with volume and revenue falling by over 50% coupled with the need for significant incremental investments in personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. Strata has been tracking the impact of COVID-19 on health systems since March via the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker. While Federal funding has providing some support, most organizations are still working through how to sustain their organizations financially while caring for their communities during this challenging time.

“The front line of the COVID-19 battle has been our hospitals and healthcare providers and their work has truly been heroic,” stated Dan Michelson, Chief Executive Officer of Strata. “With that said, this has created what is likely the worst financial crisis in the history of healthcare. It is critical that we provide support to our healthcare providers and help them in their recovery. Our virtual conference comes at a mission critical time, helping hospitals connect with and learn from the other 220 healthcare delivery systems in our customer network. Given the challenges we have faced as a country during this pandemic, we view it as a privilege to have had the opportunity to help our healthcare heroes.”

100% Virtual and 100% Free for Healthcare Providers

Designed for finance and operations teams at healthcare providers across the country, the LIFT20 Summit is 100% virtual and 100% free and features nearly 50 educational sessions, many of which are CPE-accredited. Any healthcare provider can register for the event with an email address from their organization and will be able to access a wide variety of learning opportunities, including:

Keynote Panel Session: Attendees will hear from four of healthcare’s most well-respected CFOs representing Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare, MemorialCare and VCU Health System. These leaders will share how they navigated unprecedented challenges this year and how they are planning for the future. Panelists include:

Steven Glass, Chief Financial Officer, Cleveland Clinic
- Melinda Hancock, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer, VCU Health
- Karen Testman, Chief Financial Officer, MemorialCare
- Bert Zimmerli, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Intermountain Healthcare

Peer-Led Thought Leadership Sessions: Attendees can select from 16 CPE accredited sessions. These case studies from Strata’s customer network will educate attendees about how to take advantage of best practices, new design and product efficiencies. Sessions include:

Guiding the Culture Change When Adopting Dynamic Planning – CHRISTUS Health and John Muir Health
- COVID-19 Recovering OR Volume – UConn Health
- The Journey to Advanced Costing – Saint Luke’s Health System of Kansas City and Mary Washington Healthcare
- Driving Value with Cost Accounting After Implementation – Cone Health and Northwestern Medicine
- Collaborating with Physicians on Cost Reporting – Essentia Health

Live Peer Networking Cohorts: Attendees will also have the opportunity to network and interact with peers in a virtual live setting with over 20 different networking cohort sessions, including Academic Medical Centers, Children’s Hospitals, Community/Rural Hospitals

Health Systems Embrace the Move to Virtual

While virtual visits are rapidly becoming a standard from a patient perspective, virtual events, meetings and even implementations are increasingly becoming the new normal for large health systems. Strata has partnered with 50 organizations to complete remote implementations of the cloud-based StrataJazz^® platform since mid-March when COVID-19 began to significantly impact U.S. healthcare systems. As hospitals face one of the worst financial crises in the history of healthcare, they have been deploying Strata’s tools for improving financial planning, analytics, and performance to assist their recovery.

Customers including CHRISTUS Health, Duke University Health System, Novant Health, Sharp HealthCare, and Yale New Haven Health System have completed successful implementations utilizing The Strata Virtual Implementation Approach (VIA™) which eliminates the risk of COVID-19 exposure for hospital staff while accelerating access to financial applications during this mission critical time, when U.S. hospitals are losing billions of dollars every month due to the pandemic.

To sign up for the LIFT20 Strata Decision Technology virtual users conference, please go to summit.stratadecision.com.

About Strata Decision Technology

CHICAGO, September 10, 2020 — Over 50 healthcare delivery systems have completed remote implementations of the cloud-based StrataJazz^® platform since mid-March when COVID-19 began to significantly impact the U.S. Healthcare System. As hospitals face one of the worst financial crises in the history of healthcare, they have been leveraging the Strata Decision Technology (Strata) virtual implementation approach (VIA™) to deploy financial planning, analytics, and performance applications to assist in their recovery.

Customers including CHRISTUS Health, Duke University Health System, Novant Health, Sharp HealthCare, and Yale New Haven Health System have completed successful implementations utilizing VIA™, eliminating the risk of COVID-19 exposure for hospital staff while accelerating access to financial applications during this mission critical time when U.S. hospitals are losing billions of dollars every month due to the pandemic.

VIA guarantees an efficient, automated, secure, and successful deployment

Over 220 health systems nationwide use StrataJazz to help them to better plan, analyze, and perform. Previous on-site implementations of StrataJazz involved multiple visits by Strata team members and subject matter experts to provide in-person system design sessions, training, and support.

Strata’s VIA instead combines third-party virtual collaboration tools and automated tools embedded within StrataJazz to make remote go-lives easier and more effective. VIA includes the following components to ensure customer success:

Virtual Infrastructure: Strata’s entire IT infrastructure has been 100% cloud-based since 2005. To secure access to data, StrataJazz uses role-based security. The platform is HITRUST-certified, ensuring compliance with HIPAA requirements; and is SOC 2 Type II certified relative to its security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy controls.

Virtual Deployment Model: Strata’s deployment approach helps to deliver results with an agile team structure and regular virtual collaborative sessions. Strata’s virtual implementations have consistently received “A Ratings” from customers on both implementation and support surveys.

Virtual Training & Adoption: To ensure successful adoption, Strata provides a robust suite of embedded simulation-based eLearning within StrataJazz. This is further augmented by virtual certification courses, and virtual, customized end user training webinars to ensure true knowledge transfer.

Virtual Post Go Live Support: After go-live, an embedded Help Center within StrataJazz and a dedicated onshore support team help to keep customers on track with their goals. Strata has the highest satisfaction ratings in the market, having earned “Best in KLAS” over the last six consecutive years.

Virtual Advancement Planning: Additionally, customers are assigned an ongoing, seasoned Experience Manager who partners closely for Annual Assessments and Roadmap Sessions. Customers also have ongoing virtual performance tuning reviews based on Strata’s best practice playbook.

Strata Guarantee: To further eliminate risk, the Company has provided a Strata Guarantee for over a decade, which now also applies to VIA deployments.

“We’re committed to doing everything we can to keep our customers and our own team members safe while delivering world-class implementations of our platform,” said Jennifer Rauworth, Senior Vice President of Client Services at Strata. “This experience has taught us that we can do more remotely than we ever thought possible. Our customers benefit from enhanced safety while maintaining a world-class level of efficiency and quality.”

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About Strata Decision Technology

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Strata Decision Technology (Strata), a pioneer and leader in the development of cloud-based financial planning, analytics and performance tools for healthcare, today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire EPSi from Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) for $365 million. EPSi is a leading provider of financial decision support and planning tools for hospitals and health systems.

“By bringing these two outstanding companies together, we believe that we can build one of the most important companies in helping to solve the biggest problem in healthcare – the cost of it,” said Dan Michelson, Chief Executive Officer of Strata. “Our focus will be to accelerate innovation to provide broader and deeper solutions to help our customers, deliver the highest service levels in the industry, and create the very best place to work in healthcare.”

Hospitals and healthcare delivery systems were already under significant financial pressure with margins rapidly declining over the last few years. COVID-19 has caused a significant increase in the cost of care coupled with major declines in both patient and procedure volume, creating what is seen as the biggest financial crisis in the history of healthcare. The combination of Strata and EPSi will bring healthcare providers a set of innovative solutions and services to help them better plan, analyze and perform in support of providing care in the communities that they serve.

“Strata is a world-class company that will provide both an ideal and permanent home for EPSi,” said Rick Poulton, Allscripts President and Chief Financial Officer. “This agreement is a triple win for EPSi customers and Allscripts shareholders as it allows us to efficiently recirculate capital, increase our focus on our core businesses, and bring our EPSi customers the benefit of continued investment under new and very strong ownership.”

The transaction is expected to close later this year, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Allscripts has owned the EPSi business since it acquired Eclipsys, Inc. in 2010. Upon closing of the transaction, the EPSi customer base and associates will transition to Strata. The two companies will operate independently until the deal closes.

RBC Capital Markets, LLC served as Allscripts’ exclusive financial advisor in connection with the sale of EPSi and Zeigler served as financial advisor to EPSi management.

About Strata Decision Technology

Strata Decision Technology provides an innovative cloud-based financial analytics and performance platform that is used by healthcare providers for financial planning, decision support and continuous improvement. Founded in 1996, the Company’s customer base includes over 220 healthcare delivery systems. The Company’s StrataJazz^® application is a single integrated software-as-a-service platform that includes modules for capital planning, continuous improvement, contract modeling, cost accounting, cost management, decision support, financial forecasting, management reporting, operational budgeting and performance improvement and strategic planning. The Company’s headquarters are in Chicago, IL. For more information, please visit www.stratadecision.com.

About Allscripts

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) is a leader in healthcare information technology solutions that advance clinical, financial and operational results. Our innovative solutions connect people, places and data across an Open, Connected Community of Health™. Connectivity empowers caregivers to make better decisions and deliver better care for healthier populations. To learn more, visit www.allscripts.com, Twitter, YouTube and It Takes A Community: The Allscripts Blog.

Contacts

Strata:
Lesley Weisnbacher
312.827.3379
[email protected]

Investors:
Stephen Shulstein
312-386-6735
[email protected]

Media:
Concetta Rasiarmos
312-447-2466
[email protected]

CHICAGO, July 13, 2020 — Strata Decision Technology (Strata), a pioneer and leader in the development of cloud-based financial planning, analytics and performance tools for healthcare, has been selected by Modern Healthcare as one of the 2020 Best Places to Work in Healthcare.

The award program identifies and recognizes a small group of outstanding employers from across the hundreds of thousands of companies in the healthcare industry nationwide. Modern Healthcare partners with the Best Companies Group on the assessment process, which includes an extensive employee survey.

“It has been an especially trying year for the world, and healthcare in particular as COVID-19 ravages our communities and your workplaces,” said Aurora Aguilar, Modern Healthcare’s editor. “But the organizations recognized on this year’s list rose to the top and continued to be a source of strength for their teammates. They have seen their colleagues fall ill to the virus and struggled with the economic impact of the pandemic. The loyalty and trust between employers and their workers is being put to the test now more than ever. We congratulate Strata for continuing to serve their workforce and communities during such an unprecedented time.”

“We are honored to be recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the best employers in the healthcare industry during such an urgent and critical moment for our industry,” said Dan Michelson, Chief Executive Officer of Strata. “Our mission to ‘help heal healthcare’ has never been more important to our customers and our country. We have a team that wakes up every day with a passion for making a meaningful difference for the 220 healthcare delivery systems and 1,000 hospitals that we serve. We feel very fortunate to be able to work on something we care about with people that we care about.”

Strata’s cloud-based solution, StrataJazz^®, is a single, modular platform that brings healthcare providers a “financial flywheel” to better plan, analyze and perform, driving margin to fuel their clinical mission. Strata customers also recognized as one of the top employers in healthcare include Advocate Aurora Health, Catholic Health Services of Long Island, Cleveland Clinic, and Orlando Health.

Modern Healthcare will publish a special supplement featuring a ranked list of all the winners along with the October 12th issue of the magazine.

About Strata Decision Technology

Media Contact:

Todd Stein
510-417-0612
[email protected]

Strata Decision Technology Launches National Hospital Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker, Providing Unprecedented Visibility into the Pandemic’s Impact on 225 Clinical Service Lines

CHICAGO, May 11, 2020 — A new analysis of over 2 million patient visits and encounters from 228 hospitals in 40 states by Strata Decision Technology (Strata) is the first to provide a detailed view of the level of reduction in patients accessing healthcare and the associated impact on the health of patients and our nation’s hospitals. The study, which coincides with the launch by Strata of the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker™ reveals just how significant the wave of delayed care is that has built up during the COVID-19 pandemic – and how many of those patients may be unable to pay when they do seek care due to a loss of insurance coverage.

Strata analyzed 2 million patient visits and procedures from 51 healthcare delivery systems in 40 states, with varying rates of COVID-19 cases in their 228 hospitals. Analysts then compared patient encounters during a two-week period in March and April 2020 to the comparable period last year. The analysis reveals that across all service lines and in every region of the country there was an average decrease in the number of unique patients who sought care in a hospital setting of 54.5%. The sharp drop in encounters is linked to the cancelation of elective surgeries during his time period, along with resource constraints and ongoing concerns for the safety of patients and staff.

Millions of patients who put off care or had it delayed during the pandemic can soon be expected to flood hospitals and physician offices seeking care. Clinical service lines that saw the sharp drops in patient encounters included those with life-threatening illnesses such as a 57% decrease in cardiology, and a 55% decrease in breast health with a 37% decline in cancer care overall. Many facilities will likely be hard-pressed to handle the resulting surge in patients while simultaneously maintaining capacity for COVID-19 patients.

Major Declines in Top 10 Inpatient Procedures

Inpatient procedures and surgeries account for the majority of revenue for hospitals. The top 10 procedures account for over 50% of the total payments made to hospitals.

In this category there were significant declines in the number of hip (-79%) and knee (-99%) replacement surgeries as well as in spinal fusions (-81%) and repair of fractures (-38%). Coronary stents (-44%) and diagnostic catherization (-65%) also saw significant declines. Overall diagnostic volume declined by 60%. Both normal delivery (1%) and C-section (2%) saw increases. Mechanical ventilation increased by 24% due to treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Reduction in the Number of People Accessing Care

Among the findings are significant recent reductions in patient encounters (both inpatient and outpatient) for so-called elective care that is crucial to maintaining the health of millions of Americans. Drops in patient volume are shown below for several of the 225 Clinical Care Family™ definitions determined using the Sg2 Care Grouper™.

Access to clinical care for patients with life-threatening conditions declined significantly including congestive heart failure (-55%), heart attacks (-57%) and stroke (-56%). Access by patients for chronic conditions also fell for patients with hypertension (-37%) and diabetes (-67%). The high volume patient visits and procedures that dropped the most were for cataracts (-97%), sleep apnea (-91%) and osteoarthrosis (-88%) and glaucoma (-88%). Additionally, health screenings that are designed to provide early detection but are often seen as less urgent were down significantly in volume, increasing the risk of undiagnosed disease. Preventive wellness visits, gynecologic wellness and screenings, and GI benign neoplasms and polyps—which includes colonoscopies with removal of polyps—all saw volumes drop by over 75% in the cohort group.

“Hospitals across the country are eager to open their doors to elective procedures so they can serve their community, care for their patients, and survive economically but how they get there is literally a hundred-billion-dollar question,” said Dan Michelson, CEO of Strata Decision Technology. “Many facilities will likely be hard-pressed to handle the surge while simultaneously maintaining capacity for COVID-19 patients. Having visibility into patient volumes across all of their service lines is key to understanding how to safely engage patients while balancing the clinical, operational and financial complexity and pressures imposed by COVID-19. The data is clear, however, that the initial relief package given to hospitals and healthcare providers will not be enough. More funding will be needed to ensure that they can keep their doors open to provide essential care for the communities they serve while still preparing and caring for COVID 19 patients.”

Revenues Down by $60.1 Billion/Month; Uninsured Patients up by 114%
The massive drop in patient visits and procedures during the pandemic has led directly to unprecedented financial losses. Health systems in the study cohort lost an estimated $1.35 billion in revenue during the 2-week study period compared to the prior year. Extrapolating the drop in volume from the cohort to a national view would be the equivalent revenue loss of $60.1 billion per month for hospitals nationwide.

Adding to the crisis, the Strata study found that the number of uninsured or self-pay patients has increased dramatically in the last 90 days, mirroring the rise in the national unemployment rate. In January, 7% of all inpatient and outpatient encounters in the study cohort were with patients who lacked health insurance. By April that figure had risen to 11%, and early results from May indicate 15% of all patients in the cohort are now uninsured, an increase of 114% in just 90 days. Many of these can be expected to end up on Medicaid rolls, further straining state budgets.

National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker Launched
To help healthcare stakeholders understand the impact of COVID-19 on the financial viability of our healthcare delivery system, Strata today launched the National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker. The tracker reveals patient volume changes across 225 Clinical Care Families in the study cohort of 51 health systems. It will be updated weekly and available free of charge as a public service. As a proxy for analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on patient and procedure volume, the data science team at Strata Decision Technology aggregated data from a cohort of 228 hospitals in 51 healthcare delivery systems, a subset of the over 1,000 hospitals and 220 healthcare delivery systems across the country that use the company’s StrataJazz^® financial planning, analytics and performance platform. Service Line and Care Family™ definitions were determined using the Sg2 Care Grouper™. Patient volumes within the service lines and Care Families were determined by tracking unique medical record numbers against procedure codes.

Collectively, the hospitals in the cohort serve nearly 65 million Americans, account for $69 billion in annual operating expense and represent a broad national view across 40 states and all census regions with varying incidence rates of COVID-19 cases. U.S. hospitals overall account for approximately 33% or $1.3 trillion of the $4.0 trillion in projected national healthcare expenditures in 2020 (source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid). These figures were used in tandem with the cohort data to estimate the monthly financial impact of the reduction in patient and procedure volume from COVID-19.

A detailed report on the Strata analysis is available at http://www.stratadecision.com/National-Patient-and-Procedure-Volume-Tracker.

Additional Resources
In addition to this research, Strata has developed a series of resources to help hospitals tackle the planning, analytics and performance challenges resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 Cost Capture Recovery Model: Provides a complete process for understanding the cost and revenue impact of COVID-
19. Visit here.
COVID-19 Assumption Tracker: A consolidated list of assumptions health systems to help build a financial forecast which takes into account the impacts of COVID-19.
COVID-19 Starter Set Dashboards: A specific set of COVID-19 specific data sets.
COVID-19 Resources Web Site: Additional resources to tackle the planning, analytics and performance challenges resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak. Visit here.

About Strata Decision Technology
Strata Decision Technology provides an innovative cloud-based financial analytics and performance platform that is used by healthcare providers for financial planning, decision support and continuous improvement. Founded in 1996, the Company’s customer base includes 1,000 hospitals and many of the largest and most influential healthcare delivery systems in the U.S. The Company’s StrataJazz^® application is a single integrated software-as-a-service platform that includes modules for capital planning, continuous improvement, contract modeling, cost accounting, cost management, decision support, financial forecasting, management reporting, operational budgeting and performance improvement and strategic planning. The Company’s headquarters are in Chicago, IL. For more information, please visit www.stratadecision.com.

Media Contact:
Todd Stein
510-417-0612
[email protected]