Warren Strauss, Sc.M., director of the Advanced Analytics and Health Research Resource Group at Battelle, presents four keys to data-driven quality improvement by hospitals:
- “Actionable insights: It’s not enough to count adverse events. Hospitals need analytics tools that allow them to identify the factors that contribute to adverse events and analyze risk factors. For example, by examining pre-existing patient characteristics and the procedures performed, analytics can help to identify which adverse events were potentially preventable and the risk factors that are correlated to different outcomes…. ”
- “Time-to-Value: In order to turn data into valuable insight, it must be available as close to real time as possible. When there is too much time lag between data collection and analysis, it is harder to link actions to outcomes. Policies and procedures may have already changed, and people who were involved in providing care may be gone….”
- “Accessibility and flexibility: How organizations access and view data is often as important as the information itself. Hospital leaders need to be able to access data when, where and how they need it. For instance, cloud-based capabilities are an excellent way to provide fast, easy access to higher-level insights and clinical performance analysis.”
- “Benchmarking and collaboration: Evaluating performance is an important part of making quality improvement plans. Hospitals need tools that help them compare to meaningful benchmarks and monitor their progress towards their goals. Hospital leaders also benefit from comparing their hospital’s performance with others in their system, state and nationwide. …”
