The Value of Healthcare Data
“Do no harm” and “do the right thing” are mantras of clinical training and day-to-day patient care. The reverence and priority of providing exceptional patient care is coated in complexity that is the reality of a healthcare system laden with business and operational endeavors, patient preferences, payor influences, regulatory requirements, and variability of healthcare provider training and practice. Essentially, there are a lot of factors at play in the quest to care for patients and to run effective healthcare systems. Healthcare data is a valuable and important resource that can be utilized in a variety of analytic capacities to assist with improvement efforts. Data collection and transparency enables healthcare organizations to:
- Record and analyze current ordering and treatment practices
- Identify areas of opportunity for practice improvement, appropriate resource utilization, and potential cost reduction
- Measure results of organizational improvement initiatives and interventions
- Improve patient care and outcomes
- Benchmark against departmental, organizational, local, and national standards
- Encourage and enable compliance with regulatory measures
- Facilitate meeting organizational clinical, quality, and operational goals
Clinical Decision Support & CareSelect Offerings
National Decision Support Company’s CareSelect provides clinical decision support at point of order within electronic medical systems without changing clinician workflow. Appropriate use criteria from well-established content sources, such as the American College of Radiology (ACR), National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), the American College of Cardiology (ACC), and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) can facilitate appropriate ordering practice for patient care and compliance with the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA). The implementation of evidence-based guidelines and complex clinical pathways into clinician workflow can reduce variation of patient care, encourage appropriate resource utilization, and automate processes.
The scope of clinical content in CareSelect encompasses imaging, pharmacy, laboratory, and blood management appropriate use guidelines applicable in a variety of medical settings. Content is updated regularly to maintain up-to-date with current guidelines and recommendations as well as to enable expanded product offerings. Highlights of the upcoming version include the largest release of clinical content to date from a variety of content sources, order indication standardization, improved ICD-10 code mapping, and enhanced functionality to support indication selection.
CareSelect & Reporting Tools
Data collection from clinical decision support use is an asset as it provides opportunity for benchmarking, analysis, and action that can lead to improved management of healthcare organizations and clinicians, patient care, compliance with regulatory and quality metrics, and incorporation of value-based payment models. Healthcare data transparency and analytic tools are key resources for driving departmental and organizational change.
CareSelect Imaging reporting tools provide standard reports that allow users to collect and analyze decision support data to track key metrics and the impact of clinical decision support. Data is presented in a customized dashboard with on demand access to data and tracking metrics that enable continuous and ongoing surveillance.
- Order Appropriateness Report includes the percentage and the volume of orders at an organization that fall into each appropriateness score range. The data can be grouped by different categories, such as Modality, Body Area, Gender, Indication Category, Indication Topic, Modality, Ordering Department, or Patient Class. Data can be filtered to illustrate provider-level detail.
- Clinical Decision Support Impact Report lists the total order volume and volume of times decision support was shown to end users. For the subset with feedback shown, the report provides the percentage of orders for which the provider changed to a new exam, cancelled the exam, or proceeded with the original exam. This subset may be filtered to show individual provider data.
- Red Rate Report depicts specific provider ordering scores and ranks them in comparison to the average appropriateness by displaying a provider’s normalized deviation from the population. This report is typically useful within provider specialties.
CareSelect Imaging reporting tools can assist with determining benchmarks for utilization and appropriateness as well as identifying gaps, patterns, and discrepancies in patient care. This information enables healthcare leaders and clinicians to target interventions to improve outcomes, patient care, and payor reimbursement.
Conclusions
Healthcare is a dynamic, complex field with ongoing efforts towards clinical, quality, and operational improvements. Data can be utilized to identify areas of opportunity and to initiate and monitor interventions. Clinical decision support technology and data measurement available through National Decision Support Company can drive improvements of patient care and compliance with regulatory measures. CareSelect data collection and analytic tools provide meaningful solutions to the current challenges involved with obtaining, tracking, and analyzing healthcare data.