PHS boosts growth with operations improvements

ROSEVILLE, Minn. – As the new COO at Pediatric Home Service (PHS), Claudia Kuri has embarked on an overhaul of the company's operations to ensure it can grow while seamlessly providing care for its patients and their families.

Building a culture that supports change – and learns from it

A big part of that overhaul: embracing change management, says Kuri, who joined PHS in September. Ensuring buy-in from team members and helping them understand the link between change and the impact to the patient is critical to success, she says.

“We explain the why – why do we need to do it, why is it important,” she said. “And then we give them the tools to be successful.”

Those tools include training, the opportunity to ask questions, and even the opportunity to try and fail new things, said Kuri.

“If things don’t work, ok, we learn and move on,” she said. “We want to make sure that when we launch, it’s adopted and it’s successful.”

Giving clinicians more time & more meaningful work

PHS is also implementing technology to improve operations - not only to make employees more efficient but also to make them happier. By investing in more automation to take up tasks, clinicians are freed up to spend more time caring for patients, says Amy Hickman, vice president of RCM.

“As we invest in technology, as we modify and optimize our processes, we provide them with much more time to do what they enjoy, which is care for patients,” she said. “And that, (in turn), drives our clinical outcomes.”

Cyberattack highlights room for improvement

Outside forces are also shaping PHS’s operations, including the Change Health cyberattack in February 2024, which brought payment and claims processing across the country to a halt.

“The Change (cyberattack) kind of highlighted some of the things we could do better,” Hickman said. “For example, making sure our claims are cleaner, we were able to lower or DSO. Just making sure that the documentation is done right at the beginning.”

Shoring up to scale up

By operating leaner and more efficiently, PHS is ensuring a strong internal platform as it seeks to grow from a regional to a national provider. The company has made several acquisitions in recent years, including the Jacksonville, Fla.-based All About Pediatrics in late 2023.

“For us, the common theme is, ‘How do we manage to infuse operational excellence into our organization so we can do more with the resources we have and provide access to care for more patients across the country,’” said Kuri. “That entails investment in the resources we are bringing on board and seeing the benefit of streamlining the front and the back end and how working together drives much different outcomes.”

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