Staying The Course To Unlock Big Data Rewards
How big of an impact can big data really make in health care? For years, big data — a host of technologies that aggregate patient and provider data from countless inputs and the analytics tools that make sense of it — has been hailed as the cure to many of the industry’s ailments. An increasing number of voices claim, however, that big data has failed to deliver material improvements in healthcare.
Big data has created incremental advances in a few niches, like respirator-induced pneumonia. But uptake challenges and the sometimes-glacial pace of change in healthcare have prevented it from creating system-wide enhancements.
As critiques of big data’s perceived failure to launch grow louder, providers should remain patient, and continue to pursue big data rewards. Big data will undoubtedly transform our healthcare system in myriad ways — reducing costs, improving patient health outcomes, and spawning as-yet-undreamt-of innovations and tools — if stakeholders stay the course.
Indeed, the obstacles holding back big data can be and will be surmounted. Ironically, many of these relate to the data itself — that is, the type and quality of data being collected, along with its transfer.
As healthcare administrators know better than anyone, the speed and efficiency of your health system or practice depends on the quality of data that powers it. And the task of deriving meaningful insights from big data is no different; you must start from a foundation of quality. So any project must begin by isolating the right data needed to achieve a given operational goal, even if it is not easily available.
According to Health Affairs:
“Many organizations — both inside and outside of health care — tend to stick with the data that’s easily accessible and that they’re comfortable with, even if it provides only a partial picture and doesn’t successfully unlock the value big data analytics may offer. But…when organizations develop a ‘weighted data wish list’ and allocate their resources towards acquiring high-impact data sources as well as easy-to-acquire sources, they discover greater returns on their big data investment.”
Once you’ve found the right data to fuel your goals, your organization must then give it room to breathe. Different data sets have varying uses within an organization, including financial and resource planning, patient care, and general operations. But by cordoning data off into narrow silos or departments that do not communicate with one another, health systems and providers limit its ability to enhance internal workings or patient outcomes.
Interoperability and efficient, secure transfers of data both play large roles here. Bridging data gaps within your organization is one of the keys to unlocking big data’s promise.
As Jennifer Bresnick of Health IT Analytics notes:
“Data that sits in isolated silos cannot be used for innovative analytics, which compares disparate data sets to illuminate new insights. Organizations where analytics flourish can combine clinical, financial, and operational information to predict gaps in care, flag non-adherent patients, and target resource utilization to cut costs.”
Finally, when it comes to making your investments in an EHR system or a data warehouse pay off, don’t discount proper staff training. Human error can take a massive toll on the efficacy of analytics efforts. Without proper documentation during a patient’s entire history, efforts to derive meaningful insights for his care or your organization are handicapped.
Training your staff to properly document patient care to work in concert with your EHR or big data initiatives means plugging them into the project’s goals. When they appreciate the own role they play in its success, they are more likely to adjust their processes or behaviors accordingly.
Improvements in the areas above are not the final answer to mastering the big data puzzle — this will take years or decades to solve. But they are worth examining and, if needed, addressing for every health system or provider that’s still struggling to get its arms around a big data project.
If the poor data quality and inefficient transfer becomes apparent, or has plagued your organization for some time, please contact us. Our lightning-fast EDI tools and applications help providers and health systems build a rock solid foundation of data and do more with it — for less money. Don’t get frustrated; give our EDI consultants a call today.
