Avoidable ER Visits Can Effectively Reduce The Cost of Treatment

Avoidable emergency room (ER) visits are a critical component of population health management. Frequent and avoidable ER visits are very costly, especially when the same care could be available in a less expensive and non-emergency setting.

Around 30% of ER visits fall into the category of “frequent fliers” and represent the patients with manageable chronic conditions. Such individuals may visit the hospitals more than 10 times a year. In fact about 80% of all healthcare costs merely spent on just one-fifth of the population. The improper use of ER services is a major source of waste in a healthcare system.

Solutions like Jvion’s RevEgis help hospitals predict ER visits and better administer ER costs based on:

30-day ER predictions

30-day inpatient predictions

High-utilizer/"frequent flier" predictions

Unreimbursed ER care predictions and forecasts

ER high utilizers : At a glance

ER high utilizers are typically the people of modest means and poor health who go in and out of emergency rooms day after day. The root of their health issues is rarely resolved incurring ever-growing cost to hospitals, municipalities and taxpayers.

Such people suffer immensely from chronic conditions and live an area with restricted access to outpatient care facilities. Emergency departments become the primary provider for many who are not able to access or lack the resources required to secure primary healthcare.  

Clinical Analytics : Need of the hour

In the present scenario, hospitals and other healthcare organizations understand the need of real time healthcare analytics. Real time predictive analytics use medical data to help healthcare providers make informed decisions; thus reducing patient suffering and loss of resources. 

The need and benefits of Predictive software solutions for Healthcare

Ground breaking developments in technology have made collecting, handling, and applying data faster than ever before. Such recent developments of innovative healthcare software solutions offer one-stop solutions for a healthcare system to turn spreadsheets and raw information into significant data that helps the organization save valuable resources, as well as the patients’ lives.Both large and small healthcare providers utilize such software to streamline patient feedback and incident reports, disease monitoring and claims administration. Innovation in technology allows protected sharing and transfer of sensitive information to enhance and improve efficiency in systemic processes.

Some of the advantages of such healthcare software are as follows:

• Predictive analytics increase the accuracy of diagnoses and can help physicians make informed decisions for their patients leading to reduced suffering and saved resources.
• Predictive analytics help in gaining better health outcomes in turn increasing patient satisfaction.
• Healthcare predictive analytics help target patient-level interventions thus reducing patient suffering.
• Advanced healthcare predictive solutions help organizations predict HAIs and minimize harm by applying preventive measures proactively.

Incident reporting in the healthcare industry is also very critical. Technically sound solutions have made it much simpler to both record and mange incident reporting. Being able to update such information in real time helps better correspondence flow across various locations and departments in a healthcare facility. 

Importance of Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare

The need to improve quality in healthcare delivery is increasing more than ever. Hospitals, clinicians and insurance providers are determined to better define and measure quality of health care delivery. A major factor in the evaluation of quality of health care delivery is patient satisfaction. Furthermore, patient satisfaction is critical to how well patients recover; research has identified a clear link between patient outcomes and patient satisfaction scores.

The healthcare industry faces increasing pressure to provide complete information to patients to help them make informed decisions about their healthcare options. The evaluation of patient experience and satisfaction has emerged as a key area of concern as patient outcomes and patient satisfaction scores are linked to each other.

Leading healthcare organizations utilize a validated inpatient satisfaction questionnaire to estimate the heath care received by patients admitted to various hospitals. Having factored into distinct domains, this questionnaire creates a score for each to help in the analysis. It evaluates probable predictors of patient satisfaction regarding socio-demographic variables, survey logistics, and history of admissions. 

Predictive analytics in healthcare

A healthcare predictive analytics solution is a tool that can be used to predict HAIs and evaluate patient satisfaction. Such evaluations of quality of healthcare delivery through patient satisfaction surveys can be a performance indicator that gives a clear picture to service providers. Predictive analytics solutions offer a one-stop solution that could be widely used in various ways to simplify and enhance healthcare delivery.

Hospital Big Data: Helping doctors deliver better healthcare

Healthcare providers are increasingly using healthcare big data solutions to provide better care for their patients. The results are improved outcomes, saved resources and increased patient satisfaction.

Advantages of healthcare big data

Hospital-focused big data analytics provides doctors with necessary current and past information about a particular patient. The doctors can analyze the patient’s data to plan better interventions for the particular case.Such analytic platforms help predict high-risk patients and help plan more effective interventions before symptoms manifest. This results in better outcomes, increased revenues and saved lives.

Healthcare Predictive Analytics

Healthcare predictive analysis is a technique used to obtain and combine current and historical healthcare data to make predictions. This involves predictive modeling, data mining, and machine learning to effectively and accurately predict health events for a patient or population before symptoms manifest. The analysis of current and historical clinical information for a particular patient helps healthcare providers better manage and direct resources and treatments that prevent illness.

Various predictive analytics applications exist that offer easy to use interfaces and improved outcomes. These predictive analytics software applications are designed for healthcare entities to help optimize healthcare delivery in turn saving valuable resources and lives.

Making the Healthcare system more accountable and efficient

The healthcare model of the 21^st century requires a radical change because of the gradual increase in the medical expenses. Every year people pay huge premiums toward medical insurance. Currently, the predominant payment mode for patients is fee for service. Doctors charge separately for each procedure. Patients have to pay every time they access these services. It is a huge drain on resources; therefore, new healthcare payment models have come into existence to address the imbalance and duplicity. One of the best models is the accountablecare organization (ACO) model. Under this scheme, different hospitals, clinics, and physicians combine to share quality, treatment and care for a large segment of the population to eliminate duplicate tests and overlapping care.

The role of modern healthcare is to improve the well being of people:

• Apart from the payment method, the new approach to healthcare will go a long way in carrying out sepsis prevention
• Big data in healthcare facilitates the analysis of the historical information in detail to understand which group of people is most vulnerable to disease
• After identification, doctors design the treatment plan as per the medical history of the patients
• Advance analytics pinpoint the individuals who have higher chances of falling prey to chronic diseases
• Prevention is better than the cure is an old saying that perfectly fits the modern healthcare scenario. Instead of waiting for the disease to become worse, doctors can start the treatment in early stages to save the patient’s life. For example, predictive analytics applications can also accurately predict whether an individual is vulnerable to pressure ulcers. Doctors can take immediate steps to prevent the occurrence and worsening of the problem

Data Mining to Deliver Efficient Medical Services to Patients

The advent of prediction applications in the health sector is a shot in the arm for hospitals and the medical team. Even highly specialized doctors face problems prescribing treatment to patients suffering from chronic diseases. As a result, individuals visit hospitals more frequently and medical insurance continues to rise. To correct the problem, doctors analyze the medical history of the patient and target only those individuals that are at serious risk of getting infected. For others, low cost interventions could provide the same results.

Boosting the efficiency of the medical care

Installing a system based on artificial intelligence in hospitals has proven to be a boon for users. Medical staff understands and streamlines the hospital workflow to ensure optimum efficiency. Instead of providing highest-level care to each patient, patients receive customized treatment according to their individual problems. People suffering from multiple comorbidities gain access to top of the line medical consultation. Doctors define their objectives regarding patients and explain the situation in simple language devoid of medical jargons. At each visit, medical staff focuses on problems that may lead to organ failure or even death in the future.

Pressure Ulcer example

• Similarly, in case of pressure ulcers, doctors can analyze historical data and decide whether the patient will visit the clinic more often
• They plan prevention strategies to eliminate the occurrence of emergency
• Therefore, the doctors advise the patients to change the sleeping position on the bed frequently to eliminate bed sores in the skin
• While administering treatment, the medical consultant use evidence based medication to benefit the health of the patients
• Studying the treatment history of the individual will also provide valuable information about the effectiveness of the prescribed medicines