CapPlan cuts down hospital chaos

“We were able to predict what the underlying demand was from one shift to the next and understand the workforce requirements that were needed to support that bed use. We made savings of 1500 bed days or $500,000.”

For the last three years CapPlan has been used by the Canterbury DHB to build a bottom-up budget for the following year.

“We forecast every shift for the coming year and then roster to that forecast. Once the productive workforce is in place we plan leave and training around that.”

With health systems generally facing a crisis as workforces, budgets and beds can’t increase fast enough to keep up with demand for services, Hamilton says efficient planning and better use of resources has allowed the Canterbury DHB to absorb a 3% growth in demand for beds.

Well before the Canterbury DHB agreed to implement CapPlan, Burns realised that if he was to take the software further and grow the business in an international market he would need an injection of capital.
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise stepped in and introduced him to angel investors Dave Tinkler and Phil Holliday of Holliday Corporation.

“Within five minutes of us meeting I immediately saw what we could do with CapPlan,” says Tinkler. “The concept really resonated with me. I left my business partner to deal with the numbers so I could run with the ideas. You have to say by the amount of time I spend here, this is my favourite project.”

CapPlan is now in its fourth generation and the team has invested “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to reach this stage. Tinkler and Holliday’s faith in the fledgling medico has been amply rewarded. For the last three years Emendo has grown over 65% annually and revenue is expected to double again this year.

“I suppose at some point we will look at raising capital for further development, and the board has been discussing an appropriate time for this. But we don’t need it at the moment,” says Tinkler. “We did well last year, which will take us to another level of growth. When we’re ready to go the next step, however, we will be looking at substantial funding rather than the angel type that has brought us to this stage.”

The company’s multimillion-dollar turnover is the result of growth spurred on by word-of-mouth referrals that have seen the software accepted into eight hospitals across four DHBs in New Zealand, six hospitals in Australia and two in Canada. CapPlan also operates in the Bedford Hospital in the UK thanks to a referral from its chief executive and former CEO of the Canterbury DHB, Jean O’Callaghan.

O’Callaghan was heading the Canterbury DHB when Burns approached her about piloting the first CapPlan model.

“Initially in Canterbury there was a degree of scepticism. But we trialled it over a Christmas period and we could show that we were staffing wards at a much higher level than we needed to. So we could see wasted resources.”

When O’Callaghan arrived to take over the reins of Bedford Hospital in 2006 and discovered she was dealing with the same sets of problems, she immediately worked to convince one of the board members to look at the software.

“They decided to pilot the system and while they were also sceptical at first, once they saw what it could deliver they were convinced.

“The challenge is always that people believe health is not predictable.”

Since rolling out the CapPlan system in 2007, Bedford Hospital has saved £600,000 (NZ$1.3 million) per year and scooped a prestigious healthcare sector award in the UK.

“We now act as a reference site for CapPlan in the UK and have other hospitals coming to ask us how we manage,” says O’Callaghan.

“The advantage of CapPlan is that you see everything in real time. It’s possible to drill down across a range of levels and see how many beds and patients there are. Once you know that, you know you’ve got to staff at certain levels.”

It’s dealing with the initial scepticism that is always the challenge. However, Burns says the software resonates with people across the spectrum of healthcare.