Catholic Health Initiatives, a nonprofit health system headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, wanted to narrow in on utilizing data and analytics to improve patient care and outcomes.
But with numerous hospitals throughout the country (as of today, 100 hospitals in 17 states), it was a challenge to regulate the reporting and tracking measures across all of its entities.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
That’s where Jim Reichert, a physician and the vice president of clinical analytics at CHI, comes in. He also happens to be the creator of CHI’s analytics infrastructure.
“Our job was to set up standard reporting across the enterprise,” he said in a recent phone interview.
Through his work, CHI began tracking 23 measures across its facilities: Seven were quality metrics, eight were safety metrics and another eight were patient experience metrics. These included mortality reduction, cutting down on hospital-acquired infections and tracking patient harm events.
Starting next month, the health system is increasing that number from 23 to 35. In addition to more tracking more HAIs, it will also start measuring readmission rates.
The reason CHI didn’t start with a larger number of metrics has to do with its ability to harness such a large amount of data. But now it feels more confident in its capabilities. “We believe we’ve gotten to a better place with our ability to handle that,” Reichert said.
Come July, CHI is also expanding its analytics work to its ambulatory care clinics.
“We’re starting to structure the analytics so we’re not just reporting on quality and safety in the acute care setting, but also the ambulatory environment,” Reichert said.
Moving forward, the system wants to focus on moving the needle as far as the patient experience is concerned. “We have an opportunity there to make an improvement,” Reichert said.
Looking at the bigger picture, Reichert noted there are two elements that are key to success in healthcare: relationships and data/information.
Naturally, relationships with patients matter. But interactions with other stakeholders like nurses, doctors and partner organizations are also crucial pieces of the puzzle.
And data, Reichert said, has always been part of healthcare. But in today’s environment, the industry needs to be even more data-driven than it has been in the past. It should strive to convert said data into information that’s useful and can improve patient care.
“If those two aspects are optimized, healthcare and our patients’ experience and their outcomes will be improved,” he said.
Photo: goir, Getty Images
