Case Studies

Dissolving Silos for Better Integrated Emergency Care

A community hospital faced various challenges in coordinating care between its adult and pediatric emergency departments, such as siloed care, declining throughput metrics, staffing vacancies, and a flat-rate compensation model. Collaborating with Sound Physicians, the hospital addressed staffing challenges and redesigned patient care, improving length of stay in both EDs, patient satisfaction, and reducing overall admit length of stay.

Hybrid ICU Model: Better care for patients, cost savings

A medical center transformed its ICU care, doubling its patient capacity and achieving seven-day coverage with a unique hybrid approach while saving $500K and improving patient safety. Read now for a glimpse into healthcare innovation.

Employed to outsourced: Collaboration and trust-building bring positive change

With the success at another hospital, a hospital in the same system transitioned their emergency and hospital medicine programs to Sound Physicians. Despite typical challenges moving from an employed to an outsourced model, Sound and the hospital implemented a successful transition with a tight timeline over the holidays. Within six months of implementation, the hospital has a fully staffed team, and clinician satisfaction and patient care improved.

Centralized MDRs Improve Length of Stay

After seeing the positive impacts of Sound’s centralized multidisciplinary rounds (MDRs) at another hospital, including reducing length of stay (LOS), the case management team of a south-central US medical center agreed to pilot a similar program at their hospital. Within nine months of the pilot, the hospital saw a 0.5 day reduction in LOS and stabilization of case mix index and readmissions, among other positive impacts.

Medicare Advisor: Timely and Appropriate Conversion from Observation to Inpatient

Medicare Advisor seamlessly integrates with your Sound hospital medicine program to ensure no Medicare fee-for-service patient is overlooked. Sound physician advisors monitor patients in real-time to validate the original admission order, so hospitals maintain compliance and maximize efficiency. On average, hospitals see a 36 percent decrease in long observation stays and a $700,000 increase in annual hospital revenue.

Leadership, Multidisciplinary Rounds Boost HCAHPS Scores

The hospital medicine team at a teaching hospital in Texas was experiencing lower-than-desired HCAHPS scores. Sound’s Medical Director and Clinical Performance Nurse implemented leadership discharge rounding with Sound patients improving survey responses, and saw an 8.4 percent absolute increase in HCAHPS scores within six months. They also implemented a formal approach to multidisciplinary rounds and saw an 0.8-day LOS reduction within five months.

Modern Anesthesia Protocols, Top-Trained Leaders Drive Better Patient Outcomes

The Sound Anesthesia team brought clinical rigor and collaborative leadership to the hospital, helping to knit the team together and work confidently in lockstep. As the team blended anesthesiologists and CRNAs, they were more agile and efficient when it came to managing ICU support, where needed, and turnover times.

Improving Quality and Performance with Integrated Clinical Services

In this hospital, Sound's integrated solution brings together hospital medicine, emergency medicine, and critical care to put the patient at the center of care. This integrated approach has led to reduced decision to admit times, reduced ED door-to-provider times, and reduced ED LWBS.

Benefits of a Value-Based Hospitalist Partner

Learn how we built a communication process for the largest network of independent PCPs in Texas so physicians could “follow” their patients through the acute setting, mitigate risk, and reduce leakage from their practice.

Home Health Connect Expands Access and Improves Financial Outcomes

In August 2021, Liberty HomeCare launched Home Health Connect, a telemedicine-based service provided by Sound Physicians that gives Home Health agencies access to skilled tele-physicians to expedite home health certifications and increase physician access during the home health episode.

Telemedicine: 86% Reduction in 30-Day All-Cause Readmissions at 100-Bed Skilled Nursing Facility

Abbey Woods Center for Rehabilitation and Healing, a 100-bed skilled nursing facility in St. Joseph, Missouri, faced a common nursing home challenge: on-call coverage after-hours, and no doctor in the building. This standard SNF practice relies on phone consults to address concerns, which results in far too many vulnerable SNF residents going back to the hospital in the middle of the night.

Transitioning to Value-Based Hospital Medicine: A Sound Investment?

The transition from fee-for-service medicine to value-based care implies unique challenges for different types of health systems. For Sound Physicians, that challenge was to develop care models and enabling technology that could be applied at scale and across very heterogeneous practice environments.

Comprehensive Emergency Medicine Implementations: Building a Foundation for Clinical & Operational Excellence

Hospital leadership knew they had talented clinicians; however, they were unhappy with the regional support and leadership provided by their current emergency medicine group. They turned to Sound Physicians to smoothly implement programs and deliver operational excellence.

A New Solution for Clinical Documentation

Hospitalists are an extremely efficient mechanism to ensure capture of HCCs for hospitalized patients through comprehensive documentation and recording of relevant ICD-10 codes on their professional services claims.

Building Back Census with Higher Acuity Patients

As skilled nursing facilities emerge from the ashes of the COVID-19 nightmare, they are searching for ways to recoup financial losses associated with COVID-19, offset increased costs, and successfully address the reality of vast staff burnout.

Reconciling Relationships, Reputation, and Results Through Clinical Integration

This South Carolina hospital had underperforming EM and HM departments which damaged their reputation. They turned to Sound to integrate programs and improve clinical outcomes.

How Quality Drives Growth: Attracting & Retaining High-Acuity ICU Cases

When a hospital's ICU was not performing and giving proper support to complex cases, they turned to Sound Physicians to improve clinical performance.

Telemedicine: The Future of Post-Acute Care

An interview with a 5-star senior living community that partnered with Sound Physicians to improve clinical capacity

Successfully Implementing a Telemedicine Program to Improve Night Shift Care

After exploring several options, Kern River partnered with Sound Physicians for dedicated telehospitalist support during nights, weekends, and holidays.

Partnering with Sound Physicians: A Medical Director Spotlight

Hear from a Medical Director in Southern California about his experience working with Sound's SNF Telemedicine program to provide coverage for one of the skilled nursing facilities he oversees.

The Right Telemedicine Partner Makes a Difference

Switching from a local provider to Sound Physicians brought unexpected benefits to a Florida skilled nursing facility.

High Acuity Care at Home: Providing Access to Better Outcomes

This case study highlights how an innovative home health program leveraging engaged tele-hospitalist physicians transformed one high-risk patient's view of the medical system, and enabled a full recovery at home without a hospital readmission.