Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/694761
How do hospitals leverage that data to affect organizational outcomes? Patient acuity The majority of surveyed hospital executives said patient acuity data significantly impacts quality of patient care, more so than data for census and projected over- time. As an emergency department manager in the Midwest noted, "Recognition that a patient's level of acuity is directly linked to the amount of care a patient requires, and thus the amount of time the nurse will spend with that patient , is exactly why acuity is a critical factor for appropriate staffing." Acuity-based staffing is easy to understand in theory. The concept has existed for years and is familiar to many in healthcare. Nonetheless, acuity-based staff- ing is not accurate without the right data points to provide the most meaningful insights. "Patient acuity data helps us move beyond our biased personal opinions and focus on reality," said the CEO of a hospital in the Southwest . Organizations need to ensure the quality of data is reliable. After all, data quality ultimately determines whether staff accepts and uses it . Patient acuity data must be consistently and accurately captured and available on a timely basis, said the vice president of patient care at a major academic health system in the South- west . "The right data points have to be captured. When data points are some- one's opinion, reliability decreases significantly." By leveraging the EMR, hospitals are able to pull acuity data that is more objec- tive, reliable and sophisticated than what was previously available through opinion-based scheduling and manual data collection. Armed with a clearer pic- ture of patients' needs, organizations can make smarter staffing decisions based on data, evidence and outcomes rather than assumption or outdated manual processes. 47% "Recognition that a patient's level of acuity is directly linked to the amount of care a patient requires, and thus the amount of time the nurse will spend with that patient , is exactly why acuity is a critical factor for appropriate staffing."