Posts Tagged: data analytics

What Is Healthcare Data Management?

Posted by & filed under Healthcare.

what is healthcare data management

The question, what is healthcare data management, doesn’t have a simple answer. It’s complex and includes many different nuances and challenges. The entire healthcare ecosystem is part of the answer. Simply put, it’s how a healthcare organization manages its data.

That management of data includes keeping it private and observing compliance mandates. It also deals with the data’s accessibility, portability, and interoperability. The amount of healthcare data is increasing every minute. Its value to the delivery of care, reducing costs, and improving public health is immense. However, the true potential of healthcare data remains untapped. 

In this post, we’ll look at the ways that we address, what is healthcare data management. 

Data Management Includes Moving It

Data movement in healthcare includes many subsets. There are data conversions and data sharing. In a healthcare data conversion, you move patient data from one software platform to another. It sounds easy, but it’s rather complex. 

To migrate data successfully, you must:

  • Follow compliance guidelines.
  • Ensure field matching is accurate.
  • Include a robust QA process.
  • Move structured and unstructured data.

Those are the pillars of successful healthcare data migrations. Because there is no industry standard for EHRs or pharmacy management solutions, you can’t just copy and paste or use a simple program. It’s a process that requires expertise, testing, and quality controls to deliver the most accurate outcome.

Data sharing is also critical in data moving. Internal and external systems need to exchange data in a secure and consistent process. Data sharing is a data management pain point for many, but it’s necessary to support decision-making and have a holistic view of public health. 

Another aspect of sharing is patient access through portals. Most EHRs have this feature and share data automatically, but there may be additional information that patients should be able to retrieve. For example, lab reports are sometimes in other systems, requiring the portal to acquire that data from its host. 

Data Management Requires Storing It

Storing data is another segment of healthcare data management. First, you should have secure cloud backups of all your applications and data. This function is imperative for strong cybersecurity practices.

The other element of storing data is archiving it. Healthcare data archiving enables you to move data from active or legacy programs into a centralized repository. It’s then accessible, secure, and searchable. In addition, you’ll be able to meet medical record retention guidelines by archiving. 

Data Management Involves Analyzing It

Healthcare data has little value without analysis. By leveraging technology platforms, you can derive critical insights from your data. You can begin to answer micro and macro questions based on the patterns and trends in your data.

Data analytics will likely be the most critical aspect of healthcare data management. It has the potential to improve care delivery and be predictive for both public outcomes and individual patients. Further, it could reduce costs, helps organizations maximize revenue, and more business-focused needs.

What Is Healthcare Data Management? It’s How You Use It 

Healthcare data management means many things. What it means to your organization is how you use it. Your data must be accessible, portable, and interoperable to have healthy data operations. When you don’t have those functions, it derails your capabilities. We’re experts in all areas and are a healthcare data partner of choice for many organizations. Explore our healthcare data management solutions today.

Pharmacy Analytics Trends and Insights

Posted by & filed under Pharmacy.

pharmacy analytics

Pharmacy analytics can be a powerful tool for the industry. The world of big data is only growing, and by leveraging it, pharmacies can make better decisions. They can also play a role in drug shortages. As pharmacies begin their critical role in COVID-19 vaccinations, pharmacy analytics could also serve the public health. 

In looking at pharmacy analytics trends, here are some key trends and insights that should be top of mind for the industry.

Drug Shortages

The pharmacy industry was facing challenges with drug shortages and supply chains. The pandemic exasperated these even further. There was a higher demand for some drugs that were possible treatments for the virus. At the same time, shutdowns all over the country impacted every supply chain.

Data can help. First, it can identify potential shortages faster when you combine historical data with AI or other tools to model future supply. Data analysts can then proactively determine shortage risk. 

Medication Adherence

Medication non-adherence costs the healthcare system millions every year. There are many reasons patients don’t take their medications, many related to SDOH (social determinants of health). Consumers may have concerns over copays or access. Pharmacy analytics could flag these patients. Then health plans, especially ones associated with Medicare Advantage, could create outreach programs to help these patients. 

For example, in partnership with the pharmacy, the plan could advise the patient of delivery or curbside pickup services. Small steps like these could keep people healthier and reduce strains on the healthcare system. 

Risk Detection of Questionable Drug Use

The country is still fighting an opioid epidemic. There are also many other categories of drugs for misuse—those prescribed for anxiety, ADHD, and sleep, to name a few. Analysis of a pharmacy’s user base, inclusive of all locations, is an effective tool in flagging possible drug misuse. 

Overprescribing is still rampant. Two recent settlements by the Department of Justice (DOJ) highlight this. 

First, Reckitt Benckiser Group agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle claims it promoted an opioid addiction treatment, Suboxone, to physicians they knew were indiscriminately writing prescriptions for it. Further, the DOJ accused the company of using its “Here to Help” program to not help addicts but connected them with doctors who prescribed their drug.

Another case involved Avanir Pharmaceuticals. They settled a kickback case for $108 million. The DOJ allegations consist of the company incentivizing practitioners to prescribe their drug Nuedexta for conditions like dementia, although it was not an approved use.

Pharmacy analytics could be critical in alerting regulators and organizations to abuses by both patients and prescribers. 

Store Performance

Another use of analytics for pharmacies is to measure their own performance. By looking at real-time data, you could compare month-over-month or year-over-year. It could provide you with insights on patterns around growth or decline. Data points of interest may include script performance, Rx sales, patient demographics, prescribers, payers, and more. 

With a business intelligence tool, your decision-making will be data-driven. It could help improve profitability and reduce patient churn. 

COVID-19 

Pharmacy is playing a pivotal part in testing and vaccinations. All pharmacies are submitting data to government agencies in some form. These pharmacy analytics are critical to understanding infection patterns and inoculation rates. There have been challenges with COVID-19 data aggregation and interoperability. Data from pharmacies could improve the process.

Pharmacy Analytics Can Impact Care

These use cases for analytics all have an undercurrent—they can improve patient care in this country. Prescriptions are a vital part of the healthcare ecosystem. The data from pharmacies has the potential to impact care, public health, and overall decision-making.

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How to Leverage Patient Data to Communicate Better and Reduce Patient Churn

Posted by & filed under Healthcare.

patient churn

Healthcare organizations often have an untapped resource—their patient data. It can provide you many opportunities to engage or re-engage them. You have to think of patients in the same way that brands think of customers. The reality is that patient churn is happening. Leveraging your patient data can help you create better bonds, proactively taking on churn. 

What Is Patient Churn?

Providers of all kinds—doctors, dentists, and pharmacists—all experience patient churn. Patient churn describes the percentage of patients who leave your care. You can measure it with this equation:

Churn Rate = Expected Visit Count – Actual Visit Count/Expected Visit Count x 100

It’s about comparing your expectations based on previous data to the actual number of patients you assist.

What Causes Patient Churn?

The loss of patients can happen for many reasons. Some of which are outside of your control. People move, find cures, and lose their insurance. But that probably represents a small portion of your churn. 

By digging deep into your data, you may find patterns that explain attrition. For example, you may find that you lost patients because you no longer accept an insurance plan. There may have reasons for dropping that plan, but there will always be consequences. 

So, you can’t correct course on these things. But again, you may find that when you look at patient data, much of the churn is unknown. You can run a report of patients you haven’t seen in the last six months or some other time period. Those with higher frequency patient visits can adjust. For example, pharmacies typically see patients once a month. A practice that cares for chronic disease patients may expect to see them every three months. 

It’s still a puzzle, but now you have some parameters. And you can use this to develop better communication and marketing practices.

Communicating Better

Connecting with patients doesn’t happen only when you see them. Communication should be on-going. The good thing is you have all their contact information, so you have channels, including mail and email. 

Patient communication can include many different messages, including:

  • Visit follow-ups that go over instructions 
  • Promotions (i.e., coupons for the pharmacy, discounts for cosmetic procedures)
  • Public health information, such as COVID-19 updates
  • Happenings at your practice or pharmacy (i.e., new staff, new procedures)

Your patients would likely find value in any of this information. These communications are also a perfect way to re-engage. That’ has a lot to do with segmenting.

Segmenting Patient Data

patient churn letter

Earlier, we discussed pulling reports to try to discern churn. There are many other things you can do with your data through analysis. You may find patterns that seem to indicate churn like a history of rescheduling appointments or other behaviors. 

Just as any brand assesses the behaviors of customers, healthcare needs to do the same. Every patient is a customer. They have options. Failure to deliver great care and service could be the root of your churn. 

Targeted communications can help. Suppose you group patients into buckets based on their behaviors and activities. In that case, you can personalize your message to them. 

Here’s a scenario. Let’s say you’re a pharmacy, and you want to re-engage patients that haven’t returned in six months but take at least one daily medicine for a chronic disease. In those six months, you haven’t received a transfer request, either. Patients in this bucket are high-risk. You should immediately send them a letter that expresses concern and incentivizes them to return. 

Reduce Patient Churn with a Strategy of Communications

Consistent and meaningful communication with patients is a strategic solution to reducing patient churn. It’s not an easy endeavor. It requires time which you probably don’t have. You’re also probably not a data expert. And that’s okay because we are. 

We can provide you with data analytics relating to your patient data and deploy direct print solutions. First-class envelopes arrive in your patient’s mailbox, standing out against junk mail. Letters like these can be extremely valuable in curtailing churn!

Learn more about how we help pharmacists, doctors, and dentists be better marketers!