Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/961245
65 Executive Briefing Q: How do hospitals turn data into actionable information that can be reconciled and presented in a way that resonates with all stakeholders, most importantly with physicians? Kim Wright: It's important to have the same patient-focused orientation as physicians. We don't only look at DRGs, we talk about conditions, and that's also how we frame and analyze data. We have a physician advisory board that helps put together our patient populations in a way that makes sense to doctors. We also work with our clients to create new population reports that make sense to them specifically. We are responsive to their questions and concerns when we show them information. AS: We have a system that tells us what the commonalities are in patients who have adverse events. For example, we might see that of patients who had vascular complications in the cath lab, 80 percent were women who were malnourished with a BMI below 19. Or, if we have an infection problem, we run a report looking for everything that patients who had infections had in common, whether it's procedure, location, demographic traits, comorbidities or staff. That's a starting point; that's food for thought. If you aggregate data that physicians trust physicians will figure out how to solve the problem. We've been using multiple data sets for over 20 years to work with clinicians, the one thing we know is that there is no perfect data set. It's understanding those limitations, putting it into context with our clinical experience, and getting it to your physicians as soon as possible that allows one to both identify issues quickly and solve real issues and not react to noise. Q: Are there service lines that are particularly receptive to this kind of data-driven change management? DO: It varies across health systems, but you need the following to affect real change: opportunities that matter to people, interest from physician champions, and practitioners who are amenable to change. You can find these in all service lines and areas of medicine. One thing to remember is that if you only engage your physicians in change efforts when you see something bad, you're missing real opportunities. We should also pay attention to good signals — physicians with significantly lower infection rates, great surgical outcomes — as learning opportunities we can investigate, replicate and scale. KW: I don't think the concept of using data to drive results is limited to any one group. Physicians, generally speaking, are scientists. However, we have worked primarily in cardiac, orthopedics and spine. Conclusion Today, everyone has data. To survive in a value-based healthcare landscape, organizations need a defined plan to put their data to work across the enterprise. This includes building the skills and processes to transform raw data into information with context that drives earlier patient interventions and better health outcomes. Hospital systems that are ahead of the data curve are partnering with third-party vendors like HealthTrust for support in establishing best practices from the start. HealthTrust's team of advisors can help organizations identify valid data sources, securely aggregate information, design algorithms to meet their unique needs, and gain physicians' trust and participation in data initiatives — core competencies that health systems will need for continued success. n HealthTrust (HealthTrust Purchasing Group, L.P.) is committed to strengthening provider performance and clinical excellence through an aligned membership model and the delivery of total spend management advisory solutions that leverage our operator experience, scale and innovation. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, HealthTrust (www.healthtrustpg. com) serves approximately 1,600 acute care facilities and members in more than 26,000 other locations, including ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices, long-term care and alternate care sites. On Twitter @healthtrustpg. "At the core of sustainable performance improvement are two components: gath- ering, analyzing and presenting data that stands up to scrutiny and doesn't focus on trivia, and truly being open to input and feedback from clinicians." — David Osborn, Senior Vice President of Advisory Services, HealthTrust