The pandemic forced most healthcare organizations to innovate and adapt, demanding many to change their way of working to solve pivotal issues. This was the case for Children’s Hospital Colorado, which was unable to use its typical forecasting methods based on historical data due to disrupted patient patterns caused by COVID-19. Predicting patient numbers is key for hospitals, particularly in a staffing crisis.

Enter Kerri Webster, Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Webster has a team to predict patient numbers to within a 98% accuracy, 72 hours ahead of time, with long-term forecasting accurate to within 5 patients, 18 months ahead. The Chief Analytics Officer was recruited to oversee the Children’s Hospital Colorado Analytics Resource Center in 2017, which has been nationally recognized for analytics maturity, predictive analytics and data-driven outcomes.