Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/912958
43 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY 5 Things to Know About the Nursing Shortage Response By Kelly Gooch H ospitals across the nation are increasingly investing in recruit- ment and retainment as they grapple with a nursing shortage, according to Reuters. Here are five things to know. 1. Hospitals are offering various incentives to recruit and retain nurses. ese include retention and signing bonuses, higher pay, no-cost housing, career mentoring and student loan repayment, according to the report. 2. Hospitals are investing more in temporary "travel" nurses and foreign nurses, the report states. For instance, Reuters cites Charleston (W. Va.) Area Medical Center, which has doubled its spend on travel nurses to $12 million compared to three years ago. 3. Competition plays a role as well. Reuters, which interviewed more than 20 hospitals, notes rural hospitals are forced to offer higher pay and more benefits to stay competitive with metropolitan hospitals. Reuters also notes hospitals must compete with clinics and payers for staff. 4. Hospitals' recruitment and retainment efforts come amid a nursing shortage. e Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of regis- tered nurses nationwide will grow 16 percent by 2024, more than double the average growth rate of 7 percent for all occupations. 5. A number of factors contribute to the nursing shortage. Some cited by Reuters include the aging baby boomer population driving an increased need for medical services and more patients with complex medical con- ditions, as well as experienced nurses retiring. n Daily 5-Minute Conversations Raise Patient Satisfaction Scores By Anuja Vaidya C harlottesville-based University of Virginia Health Sys- tem researchers found a five-minute conversation with a resident every day had a significant impact on pa- tient satisfaction. The researchers published the results of the study in Family Medicine. Researchers examined the impact of the psychosocial interven- tion BATHE, Background, Affect, Trouble, Handling and Empathy, which helps physicians address patients' psychosocial issues. For the study, researchers randomly selected family medicine patients to receive either BATHE or standard care, which is fo- cused on treatment plans. The patients who received BATHE intervention had a daily brief conversation with a resident. The BATHE intervention group were significantly more likely to rate their medical care as excellent and to express a high de- gree of satisfaction. The BATHE patients gave providers an av- erage score of 4.77 on a five-point scale, compared to the stan- dard care group, which gave providers an average score of 4.0. Additionally, researchers found the improvement in satisfac- tion scores among the BATHE group was linked to the per- ception that the physician "showed a genuine interest in me as a person." The BATHE conversations did not significantly add to the time physicians spent with patients. n "Selecting vendors who understand the com- plexity of configuring and enforcing this type of policy is critical to a health system's strategy," Mr. Malec says. A call to action: Choosing IT to support value-based data needs Lowering utilization rates and improving health outcomes depends upon data that are complete, consistent, accurate and accessible. Getting data on that scale is an ambitious undertaking, but an achievable one with a data platform that ac- counts for an organization's specific needs and capabilities. Health systems should consider the following three criteria when choosing a data platform to best position themselves under val- ue-based care, Mr. Malec says. 1. Build a data roadmap. Many healthcare organizations are focused on automating data capture, acquiring data and getting it together in one spot, rather than strategic planning or accounting for how data are used meaningfully on the backend. When this happens, organi- zations may encounter a number of setbacks, including incompatible data formats or ineffi- cient data flow. Instead, health systems need to establish an acquisition strategy that starts with the end in mind. "Organizations need to start by being thought- ful about where they're going in the next five years," Mr. Malec says. "Consider what kind of value-based payment programs you will be participating in, what data you'll be sharing, what organizations you'll be sharing that data with. And then make sure you're talking to you IT partner about your upfront needs and future data capabilities." 2. Formal data reuse methods. Repeat- able data acquisition can accelerate what used to be a laborious and costly process of point-to- point integration by enabling hospitals to reuse standard data mapping model, Mr. Malec says. For example, with a robust data platform, EHRs can be premapped to a canonical for- mat, which means new sources don't have to be manually mapped to one another to share information. Rather, sources are mapped to a predetermined standard, which means that new interfaces can come online within days rather than months and at a much lower cost. Data acquisition is a special competency that many organizations have not yet developed. Without the right tools, training and support, acquiring, aggregating and consuming crucial data goes beyond the skillset traditionally as- sociated with data analysts. For this reason, many organizations see value in partnering with advisors to develop appropriate acquisi- tion and data-use strategies. 3. Built-in, flexible data policy frame- work. e more partnerships a health system participates in, the more complex data-shar- ing and data-use becomes. Organizations that don't carefully think about what data is shared with what people at what time increase their risk of giving an inappropriate party access to valuable data. "Health systems need a flexible IT infrastruc- ture which allows them to get down to that level of keeping track of what exact data from which organizations can be used for which purposes for which patient — the key data rights you need to satisfy to make sure you're on the right side of HIPAA," Mr. Malec says. Choosing a data platform with a built in pol- icy framework can help organizations manage their data sources from the start. Conclusion To survive in the changing healthcare land- scape, organizations need to define a plan for how to tap into the value of data across their enterprise. is includes building the skills and processes and employing the right enabling technology to transform raw data into infor- mation that drives strategic value. With proper support from executive and IT leadership, a robust data platform helps organizations bet- ter position themselves for success under val- ue-based medicine. n