FIVE TAKEAWAYS

USING HOSPITAL QUALITY DATA TO IMPROVE PATIENT OUTCOMES

Data empowers leaders to make evidencebased decisions that can improve care.

On October 15, a group of distinguished experts convened for a discussion about hospital quality and how their organizations are creating a culture that advances quality and improves care. Moderated by Dr. Archelle Georgiou, the panel featured Merry Heath from Piedmont Fayette Hosptial, Dr. Bruce Swords from Cone Health and Rosemary Baczewski from Greater Hudson Valley Health System. The full webinar can be accessed at www.modernhealthcare.com/UsingQualityData.

Data is used in a variety of ways to improve clinical quality.

When organizations conduct an analysis of their patients’ data, they can address reasons for mortality, complications and outcomes. Through its Clinical Documentation Program that identifies data patterns, Greater Hudson Valley has been able to reduce mortality by over 40% and rise from a Healthgrades 1-star to 5-star nationally ranked stroke program. Similarly, by reinforcing quality standards, Piedmont Fayette Hospital has reduced readmission rates among congestive heart failure patients by 26%. By establishing process metrics, Cone Health was able to decrease health

care-acquired infections by 40% in one year.

Embracing a data-driven culture to improve quality outcomes.

Engaging caregivers with data about their performance is essential to achieving the best patient outcomes. Most clinicians are data-driven individuals who like to solve problems. Thoroughly checking inpatient charts and claims, encouraging clinician-patient dialogue and creating health goals, pushes caregivers to take ownership of their performance and take advantage of every opportunity to improve it.

Communication about hospital and health system success positively impacts patients, physicians and their communities.

Communicating quality results throughout an organization can encourage providers to learn more about performance and request further reporting, as clinicians like to see how they are performing in their practice. When health systems are more transparent with clinicians about where gaps in care lie, it empowers them to improve quality. Patient experience surveys also provide insights into consumers’ perspective of the quality of the health system. In addition, public reporting of quality data through storytelling and ad campaigns offer extra feedback for hospital success and improvement.

Data generated outside of your health system can be a powerful tool.

Greater Hudson Valley Health System gathers external cooperative data in three clinical programs: trauma, bariatrics and interventional cardiology. By submitting data to external registries and consumer health websites, leaders receive powerful information about how they are performing. Organizations like Healthgrades provide reports several times a year, and scrutinize data to reveal any errors or variations. Combined with internal data, external data helps to create quality improvement processes, which are then communicated throughout the hospital.

Systems need to invest in extracting data from electronic health-records.

The ability to extract data out of EHRs has improved over the years, but health systems still need to invest in a team of quality and business data analysts, scientists, and engineers to extract information from data warehouses and platforms. This analysis provides functional data back to hospital leadership and physicians on a daily basis to drive outcomes and quality of care.