Why Most Analytic Applications Will Never Be Able to Significantly Improve Healthcare Outcomes

Why Most Analytic Applications Will
Never Be Able to Significantly Improve
Healthcare Outcomes

© 2014 Health Catalyst
www.healthcatalyst.com
Proprietary. Feel free to share but we would appreciate a Health Catalyst citation.
The Promise of IT Solutions
The sheer number of health IT solutions promising to
improve outcomes and solve the healthcare industry’s most
pressing issues is staggering.
Just ask anyone who trekked across row after row at the
HIMSS15 Conference and Exhibition in Chicago

It’s easy to get lured into
thinking the solution to an
organization’s challenges is a
technology purchase away.
Many vendors, especially those
focused on data and/or
analytics, certainly make it
appear that way.
In reality it is not that simple.

A new category of healthcare
analytic applications is emerging
that delivers clinical best
practices that enable clinicians
to improve outcomes by:
• Uncovering the issues
• Determining the solution
• Implement changes

Health Catalyst has developed a
range of applications that
integrates clinical content and
support systematic rollout plans
optimized for your current
environment and scalable to
meet future analytics needs.

Applications That Focus On Improving
Clinical Outcomes
Healthcare is shifting from gathering data
and reporting metrics to improving outcomes
along the lines of the IHI’s Triple Aim.
CMS, which has traditionally focused
on the reporting of process measures,
is proposing changes that would
focus more on outcomes.
Accumulating data through
EHRs and using an analytics
solution to identify high
levels of variance in treatments, costs, and
outcomes doesn’t make an organization
data-driven.
SOURCE: IHI TRIPLE AIM

Clinical Outcomes
The Health Catalyst Heart Failure
Advanced application helps a clinical
improvement team visualize the CMS
measure and others to ensure patients
aren’t just being administratively handled.
The team improves patient outcomes
using specific strategies such as:
Reconciling patient medications prior to discharge
Ensuring the patient has a follow up appointment scheduled
Makes sure the patient receives a follow-up phone call

Clinical Outcomes
Example screen: Heart Failure Advanced Application

Clinical Outcomes
Making Application Information Actionable
Suppose an analysis reveals the number
of Caesarian Sections being performed is
above the national average?
Unnecessary C-Sections increase the
risks to the mother, infant, and the hospital
and increases per-capita birth costs.
Commercial payers that are part of a
shared risk program will want to address
this issue quickly.

Clinical Outcomes
If the organization has a clinical content
system in place, the literature can be
reviewed and guidelines established to
provide clear direction for scheduling early
caesarian section deliveries.
The organization must also drive and
manage the change.

Clinical Outcomes
What is the process if an OB physician
requests an early cesarean section be
scheduled?
With strong organizational change
management and support in place, the
scheduling nurse will be empowered and
feel safe declining the request.
The physician can appeal to the medical
director to explain why an exception
should be made.

Clinical Outcomes
The skillset required to successfully drive
change is not typically taught in medical or
nursing school or even as part of
healthcare administration programs.
However, essential to the success of any
improvement initiative the entire
organization, as well as the team
accountable for implementing the strategy,
must be ready for and willing to change.

Clinical Outcomes
Using Applications to Guide Starting
Improvement Efforts
Often the long-term success of a quality
improvement program is determined by
the first few projects.
It’s important to choose an area the data
shows has high volume and variance.
Using the Key Process Analysis app
healthcare organizations can uncover
the best opportunities for improvement
and cost reduction.

Clinical Outcomes
Example screen: Key Process Analysis

ACOs Bring Urgency to Using Analytics
Applications
The need for quality improvement
and cost containment is more urgent
for ACOs, whose successes are
based on value rather than volume.
These organizations need to find
ways to reduce costs without
lowering quality and also enhancing
clinical outcomes.
Healthcare quality leaders such as
Intermountain Healthcare and Allina
Health have shown that quality
improvement also reduces costs.

Applications
The ACO Measures application
can help organizations identify
poor performance and put a
population health or operational
efficiency improvement team in
place prior to actual CMS
reporting of a poor measure.

Applications
Example screen: ACO Measures Tool

Taking an Agile Approach to Clinical
Improvement
Taking an agile, iterative approach
that delivers continuous process
improvement has proven far more
effective than trying to make one
big change to an entire department.
As the organization begins to
implement improvements, it is
important to ensure metrics are
being met at both the process and
outcome levels.

Taking an Agile Approach to Clinical
Improvement
Another advantage of continuously
monitoring and measuring process
improvement is to protect against
changes in the original conditions.
The only constant is change.
Using an agile approach can greatly
shorten that timeframe while at the
same time deliver measurable and
sustainable improvements.

Applications Not Just For Clinical
Improvements
Implementing a Late-Binding™
enterprise data warehouse provides
access to a broad swath of clinical,
financial, patient satisfaction, claims
and other data.
This easily accessible information
helps the organization make better,
more-educated decisions.
Consider the performance of an
ambulatory clinic.

Improvements
All appointment slots are filled for
the week so it would be easy to
draw the conclusion that the clinic is
working efficiently and no major
improvements are needed.
However, the measure fails to
account for patient satisfaction.
Using the Practice Management
Explorer: Patient Access application
the clinic can get the big-picture.

Improvements
Applications for Analyzing Patient
Satisfaction
If patients must wait a week to see
a physician when they’re ill or
injured, their satisfaction scores
may be unsatisfactory.
Measures such as Healthcare
Effectiveness Data and Information
Set (HEDIS), Press Ganey, and
Hospital Consumer Assessment of
Healthcare Providers and Systems
(HCAHPS) scores are becoming
increasingly important.

Improvements
Example screen: Patient flow explorer
Using the Patient Flow Explorer, hospital leadership can
find patterns or trends to help improve workflow.

Improvements
Applications for Hospital Finances
Hospital-acquired conditions such as
catheter-associated urinary tract
infections or central line-associated
bloodstream infections must be
treated without reimbursement (no-
pay), which negatively impacts the
organization’s bottom line.
Using CAUTI Prevention and
CLABSI Prevention Advanced
Applications, health system
leadership can address these issues.

Improvements
Applications for Accessing
Patient Risk and Population
Health Management
Organizations can use data
analytics to identify opportunities
for quality, outcome, and cost
improvements among their most
expensive patient populations
using the Patient Risk
Stratification application.

Improvements
Example screen: Risk Model Analyzer application

Driving Continuous Improvement
through Analytics Applications
There are many confusing
healthcare applications available
today. Unfortunately, most don’t
really help improve care.
While there is no technology silver
bullet, new types of healthcare
applications allow health systems
to integrate their best practices
content and present the data in
ways that clinicians can internalize
and advocate while significantly
improving care.

More about this topic
Patient Flight Path Analytics: From Airline Operations to Healthcare Outcomes
Dale Sanders, Senior Vice President Strategy & David Crocket, Senior Director of
Research & Justin Gressel, Senior data scientist
Improving Outcomes for Sepsis Patients: 3 Key Solutions Proven to Help
Paul Horstmeier, Senior Vice President
Linking Clinical and Financial Data: The Key to Real Quality and Cost Outcomes
Bobbi Brown, Vice President of Financial Engagement
The Glaring Omission in Healthcare: Patient Satisfaction and Outcome Data
Dale Sanders, Senior Vice President Strategy
Health Catalyst Overview: How Improving Outcomes Can be Like an Awesome Ski Trip
Webinar
Link to original article for a more in-depth discussion.
Why Most Analytic Applications Will Never Be Able to Significantly Improve
Healthcare Outcomes

For more information:

Other Clinical Quality Improvement Resources
Click to read additional information at www.healthcatalyst.com
Dan Soule joined Health Catalyst in February 2014 as Vice President of Product
Management. Prior to coming to Health Catalyst, Dan worked for Medicity as Vice
President of Product Management. He brings over 25 years of health IT experience at
SpaceLabs, Cerner and Allscript, as well as 12 years of clinical experience at Good
Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. Dan has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Arizona
State University.

Why Most Analytic Applications Will Never Be Able to Significantly Improve Healthcare Outcomes

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Why Most Analytic Applications Will Never Be Able to Significantly Improve Healthcare Outcomes