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Engaging Physicians as Partners in Shared Data Analytics and Decision Making
If you missed this timely presentation at the HASC Annual meeting, we've highlighted a few of the key take away points below. Mark Gamble (HASC), Tracey Bennett (Pomona Valley Hospital), David Stenerson (Saint Anthony Medical Center), and John Whittlesey (iVantage) discussed how, with long term viability on the line, working in silos is no longer an option for providers. Hospitals and physicians need to work together to leverage the available internal and external benchmarking data by using it to make meaningful changes.
As hospitals take on more risk with ACO's and other new business models, managing care across the continuum will become vital. One hospital found that 90% of utilization excess was attributable to 10% of their physicians. Business analytics gave the hospital a bias-neutral, non-accusing way to approach physicians and initiate change.
In another case study, a hospital used a multidisciplinary team to decrease utilization and standardize practices for selected DRGs. The team looked at "blinded data" and discovered some key problem areas, developed solutions, and realized measurable results:
Problems
- Lack of continuity in the hand-off when multiple physicians were involved
- Duplication of testing due to out dated order sets
- Cases that should have been coded as complicated but were not, due to lack of physician documentation
Solutions
- Education on clinical documentation to support severity of cases
- Order set development that aligns with ideal clinical management
-Education of Hospitalists and ED physicians on best practices
Results
- Cost per case improved by 19%
- LOS decreased by 10%
- Improvements in ED, lab, RX and imaging utilization
- Hospital is now meeting their targeted benchmark for this population
Sharing data with physicians is an important first step for hospitals to move towards new business models. When hospitals engage physicians to become clinical champions, the results are improved clinical, satisfaction, and financial outcomes.
For more information, click here.
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