Physician Data Analytics – Market Drivers

Posted by DFWHC Staff | Date: October 24th, 2014 | Categories: Blog | Tags: DFWHC Foundation, North Texas Regional Extension Center, Physician Data Analytics

Last month, I commented on the impact of various 2015 regulatory changes on your physician data analytics system. This month, I would like to discuss some recent survey results related to data analytics and the benefits of moving ahead with this new system.

Data Analytics Survey and Market Drivers
In a recent report (HDM 09/12/14), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) hosted a survey conducted by analytics vendor Health Catalyst. The survey was completed by nearly 70 healthcare IT executives including CIOs. Results showed the top IT priorities as follows:

• 54% – Data analytics
• 42% – Population health
• 30% – ICD-10
• 29% – ACO initiatives
• 11% – IT consolidation investments.

These CIOs also indicated that the biggest healthcare “trends” accelerating the adoption of analytics are:

• 84% – Population health management
• 79% – Quality improvement
• 68% – Accountable care
• 63% – Cost reduction
• 59% – Striving to obtain a “single version of the truth”
• 54% – Better reporting
• 17% – To support research.

Benefits of a Data Analytics Program for Your Practice
Because of the driving forces surrounding data analytics, it is just a matter of when your practice group will move into some form of data analytics. Some key benefits associated with a data analytics program for your practice group may include:

• Ability to benchmark key process and outcome (patient quality of care, service use, cost, etc.) indicators, which are tracked over time to assess improvement.
• Ability to compare your performance on selected measures to the performance of other similar practices or compare to national standards.
• Ability to track quality indicators and changes in performance over time.
• Providing motivation and direction for your quality improvement goals.
• Helping to identify gaps in services and potential areas for improvement.

The North Texas Regional Extension Center (NTREC) has services to help you in various IT areas. For a preview of our services, check out this video.