By Eileen Cianciolo, Chief Product Officer, SCIO Health Analytics
Twitter: @SCIOanalytics
As value-based care takes hold in the healthcare industry, organizations can no longer churn out services without understanding their patients, the risk that they bring to the table — and, perhaps most importantly, what needs to be done to improve outcomes.
When assuming financial risk for patients and populations, it becomes even more critical for healthcare providers to have a 360-degree view of their patients, populations and opportunities in order to conduct meaningful analysis. More specifically, to get this 360-degree view, healthcare organizations need to combine various types of information including clinical, claims and socio-economic data into their electronic health records.
Change, however, is hard. And, that’s why many organizations tend to put it off. Here are four reasons why your healthcare organization should strive to leverage more complete, comprehensive data sooner rather than later:
1. Your organization will truly reach those who can move the dial.
With a complete view of the patient populations served, healthcare organizations can zero in on offering personalized care management services that engage patients how they like to be engaged and focus on populations where they will have the greatest impact. Devoting resources to patients who are not in need of interventions or who are not amenable to them will have low to little return on investment and health outcomes.
2. Your organization will have clear focus.
When the right data is combined and meaningful data layers are created, healthcare organizations begin to see a higher level of specificity, instead of providing more generic services. For example, working across an at-risk Medicare population, it is discovered that 42% of these members have Type II Diabetes and 30% with other complicating comorbidities. When looking deeper, it is identified that a segment of these members is highly impactable (ability to avoid emergency department or inpatient visits/costs) and if focus is placed on closing the top two non-compliant care gaps across the population, significant financial outcomes would be gained.
3. Your organization can look back and forward.
When organizations try to work from one source of data, their view is limited and retrospective. For example, the services offered might be out of sync with what’s actually needed. When pulling from multiple data sets, such as both clinical and claims, healthcare organizations can begin to develop a story about what happened, what is happening and what is likely to happen. When at-risk organizations look back and forward, they can appropriately assess the risk they have but accurately predict and plan for the risk in the future.
4. Your organization can make confident informed decisions.
When working with limited data, providers might be forced to make decisions without having access to the right information. When there are gaps that result in producing an incomplete picture, healthcare organizations are apt to be wondering if they are making the right decisions. However, when providers and caregivers are given access to a comprehensive view of their patients, populations, risk, etc., they can confidently invest resources to mitigate risk and improve health outcomes.
These are just a few reasons why your healthcare organization should strive to leverage information from multiple data sources. And, when a robust data strategy is paired with advanced analytics, healthcare organizations are equipped to take on more risk as desired and deliver on their value-based contracts.
This article was originally published on SCIO Health Analytics and is republished here with permission.