The healthcare field has a wealth of patient data available to it, information that can be harnessed to gain deeper insights into conditions and behaviors and lead to better outcomes for patients. Of course, the effective management of so many dimensions of patient and operational data can be difficult. Trying to analyze so much information absent reliable business intelligence software that streamlines the process and takes on the high volume of computational work is a difficult and time-consuming proposition at best. With Affordable Care Act requirements that offer reimbursements based on quality of care, there's an especially strong tie between the effective use of predictive analytics, the health of patients and the performance of hospitals and health systems.
"Using a healthcare management system addresses a number of common issues."
Finding more ways to improve
One of the biggest long-term advantages of predictive analytics in the healthcare industry is demonstrated in an article from SearchBusinessAnalytics. That piece detailed how one health system continued to make improvements in terms of lowered readmissions years after they started using a healthcare performance management system.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center saw continuing gains in terms of better understanding of patients, ailments, readmission factors, staff performance and other relevant data streams since first using these solutions in 2013. By the end of 2015, the health system reduced its readmission rate by 2 percent, bringing it to 13.5 percent. That shift occurred after years of evaluation that began in 2008, when UPMC started investigating the reduction of readmissions for a variety of conditions that would no longer be reimbursed by Medicare. The health system only realized significant reductions after it used analytics in its efforts, despite years of previous work on the same issue.
While addressing readmission concerns is one major benefit that predictive analytics provides, it's far from the only one. Using a healthcare management system addresses a number of common issues, including improving the use of evidence-based medicine, claims tracking, fraud mitigation and facility and site analysis. Aviana has a substantial amount of experience working directly with healthcare providers as well, with more than 200 hospitals in California alone using our solutions to chart, analyze and improve a wide variety of quality-of-care metrics. With the right predictive analytics solution in place, hospitals and health systems can improve outcomes in a variety of areas and provide a benefit to all stakeholders.