Happier and healthier clients, reasonable health care costs, clearer business performance goals, enthusiastic staff and greater consumer satisfaction are only some of the benefits of harnessing your EHR and becoming a data-driven organization.
However, pulling everything together to develop a system where all of these benefits can be reached is not easy. Organizations have to focus on capturing, storing, and accessing the data in a way that can be easily analyzed and presented to stakeholders in a flexible but concise manner. Here are six steps that an enterprise can use to become a data-driven organization.
EHR Checklist
- Capturing data. Becoming a data-driven organization requires the enterprise to have strict data input protocols. This ensures that when time and energy are invested in collecting data, it is clean, correct, complete and properly formatted for use in a multi-function dashboard.
In some recent studies, the data stored in EHRs matched the actual client reporting only 25% of the time. Problems with data collection quality follow the data throughout the system, causing low usability and unmanageable work flows. Making sure every staff member understands the importance of big data collection and its relation to the goals of the enterprise will help in encouraging employees to follow strict input protocols. And having an EHR that supports data collection standards goes a long way in insuring accuracy on the back end.
- Data scrubbing. Having "clean" data guarantees the accuracy and honesty of the data analysis. Clean data can be accomplished through strict input protocols and the use of automated scrubbing programs that are ubiquitous in the EHR platform. These data-cleaning tools use AI and logic rules to enforce consistency and correctness.
- Storage. Why go through the expense and trouble of collecting and inputting proper data if your data storage is inadequate for your organization's needs? The data in EHRs are growing exponentially. A data-driven organization might not be able to store voluminous amounts of information on-site and is well positioned for the future if they have a robust data management plan.
A 2016 study found that just over 90% of health care companies use some version of cloud-based storage for their EHRs. When choosing a cloud storage partner, the IT department has to make sure the company understands the importance of confidentiality to medical records and HIPAA laws and regulations.
- Democratize the data. The data contained in EHRs should not be "owned" by the IT department or any other department within a data-driven organization. Data should be liberally shared throughout the enterprise, allowing staff to work and make decisions outside the vacuum of their own departments. Having a robust sharing philosophy also aids sharing of data with outside partners, increasing an organization's ability to participate in larger population health management programs and studies.
- Security. Due to the sensitivity of the data, an organization's highest priority should be security. Despite HIPAA having its own set of security rules, data-driven health care companies are still continually under attack from phishing scams, hacks, ransomware and malware. A recent study found that 66% of small- and medium-sized health care organizations have experienced some form of cyberattack within the past year.
- Reporting and visualization. If staff cannot create the reports they need in a visually necessary manner, then all of the above efforts will be for naught. Accurate reporting requires accurate, clean data, demonstrating that what is initially inputted affects the downstream outcome. Further, data analysis is different from reporting. One must come before the other. With proper analysis, an EHR platform can create pertinent, timely reports that are designed to easily convey the information to staff as efficiently as possible.
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If you would like to learn more about how Core ‘s Cx360 platform allows Behavioral healthcare organizations to fully leverage EHRs as well as gather and analyze the necessary data, all in one platform, request a demo of Cx360 today.
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