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Self- Analytics T HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION, THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZATIONS AND CHANGING CODING REQUIREMENTS HAVE CATALYZED THE TRANSITION FROM VOLUME-BASED FUNDING TO VALUE-BASED FUNDING FOR HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS. BECAUSE VALUE CAN BE DIFFICULT TO QUANTIFY, INDUSTRY LEADERS ARE TURNING TO ANALYTICS TO GRADE THEMSELVES. HE WORD " EFFICI ENCY" resounds off health care organi- zation walls across the country as leaders seek to improve outcomes amid staffing shortages. New care models such as telemedicine and uncertain relationships with insurance companies complicate discussions over which service lines need more admin- istrative support or whether this is the year for the long-awaited expansion. Payer organizations — balancing providers' needs for higher dividends and patients' needs for lower costs — want information to ensure they only pay what is necessary. Providers want information to prove that they should be paid. Both sides want to ensure quality care, and they can't ensure it unless they track it — thus the need for analytics. Getting the Best of Your Numbers After facing the reality that analytics will drive the future of health care, industry leaders have to decide what to do with the data they mine. Because the numbers from product expenses, admissions, readmissions and outreach programs will likely represent a few redundant costs, executives can make decisions using not only organizational priorities but also cash-value analyses. Organizations using analytics have introduced a range of cost-saving, value- building initiatives, including: + alternating staff schedules to reflect hours when patients need them, + bringing telemedicine monitors to patients with chronic diseases, + changing office hours to times that work better for patients, + providing patients payer-based incen- tives to take part in wellness and disease prevention programs, and + reducing emergency room visits through the Medicare Advantage program. The benefits of analytics are self- evident , but many organization leaders aren't willing to face the upfront costs of delving into data. Paradoxically, the only way to measure the cost-benefit ratio of analytics is with hard data. GET STARTED ON STATS THE IBM INSTITUTE for Business Value recently released a study called "The Value of Analytics in Healthcare." This study provides a strategy for introduc- ing data into a health care organization using five simple steps: + Step one: Determine opportuni- ties within the organization for improved quality. + Step two: Focus on each opportunity and ask value-centric questions to develop data. + Step three: Develop action points for each opportunity based on correla- tions with needs. + Step four: Continue building your store of data by adding questions and responses from the new processes. + Step five: Use your data to develop a long-term plan, benchmarking with analytics as you progress. MDNEWS.COM s MD NEWS Long Island | 31 Your Organization with Diagnose

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