How Hospitals Make the Best Decisions with Data Analytics
May 30, 2023
To provide excellent healthcare services, it’s crucial to plan for the present and future. Fortunately, the healthcare industry is turning to data analytics to enhance patient care, reduce costs, and offer better support for medical practitioners. Access to this information improves diagnosis speed and accuracy and enables hospitals to manage their resources better. As a result, it can help lower costs and streamline operations by predicting when there will be increased demand for medical equipment and staff during surges in patient volume.
Three types of analytics are most utilized in a healthcare setting:
Descriptive analytics uses historical data to draw comparisons or discover patterns and is best for answering questions about what has already occurred.
Predictive analytics involves analyzing both past and present data to make informed predictions about future events.
Prescriptive analytics provides valuable insight to determine the best possible course of action using the latest in machine learning.
Below we take a look at how these types of analytics help medical facilities make the best decisions for their patients, their staff, and the community.
Provide Informed Care
Delivering exceptional patient care is crucial, but implementing a comprehensive patient information infrastructure can be challenging. Unfortunately, these missed opportunities result in adverse patient outcomes due to limited resources, staffing shortages, and time constraints – or even result in medical errors such as incorrect diagnoses or prescriptions. Data analytics improves the quality of care by consolidating medical data such as tests, lab reports, and prescribed medications into a cohesive digital dashboard while predicting what is needed to treat patients impactfully.
Better Manage Resources
With data analytics, hospitals can efficiently manage their resources amidst a surge, or drop, in patient volume. While this includes handling supplies, beds, and staff, it also highly pertains to operating rooms. ORs can be costly to build, manage, and maintain. Fortunately, data analytics can help hospitals reduce expenses without compromising patient care by having an in-depth knowledge of the relationships between OR variables to optimize scheduling.
Determine Administrative Needs
Consolidating important information in one place helps clinicians have a more in-depth picture of what the patient is experiencing. It conveys what needs to be done, or has already been done, eliminating repetitive tasks and wasted time. With the help of data analytics, hospitals can achieve better accuracy and efficiency while reducing staffing expenditures.
Reduce Fraud and Meet Compliance
Medical teams must leverage analytics to gain valuable insights into organizational data to curb the financial loss caused by fraud and abuse in the healthcare industry. The threat of cyber-attacks targeting hospital databases is also a growing concern, with significant revenue loss and breaches of confidential patient data. Analytics play a crucial role in detecting fraudulent payments and monitoring network history. It can even help detect suspicious online behavior by analyzing patterns and changes in web traffic.
Improve Communication
Communication between different specialties regarding patient care has been challenging in many medical facilities. Even within the same hospital system, there can be cracks in patient management. However, analytics can play a significant role in bridging the gap, facilitating seamless patient handoffs, and making a substantial difference within and between healthcare organizations.
Find New Revenue Streams
Streamlining data collection in healthcare settings has also revealed new revenue opportunities. With access to historical and current datasets, predictive modeling can track trends and help make informed decisions to improve billing workflow and account for all revenue. Furthermore, by leveraging data, healthcare professionals can identify new procedures and offerings that appeal to patients and take proactive measures to address any future potential health trends.
Growth Begins with Data-Driven Decisions
In these digital times, meeting and surpassing the needs of patients is essential, and a robust digital mindset can make a difference. That’s why partnering with the right expert is vital. With up-to-the-minute reporting tools, they can assist healthcare providers in keeping track of their key performance indicators, all while remaining budget conscious. The accurate and timely delivery of quality and operational data empowers facility leadership to make the best decisions for their patients and their organization.
At Premier Anesthesia, we offer cutting-edge reporting tools and methods that have been proven beyond effective. Our analytics help medical teams increase efficiency by tracking patient flow, adjusting staff schedules, identifying new revenue sources, and more. By providing timely quality and operational metrics, we empower hospital decision-makers to make informed choices for both their facility and patients. If you are seeking a dependable anesthesia partner to optimize performance across your medical facility, learn more.