How to Leverage Data and Analytics for Rapid Response to Emerging Threats with Christopher Hutchins

Partnering for Success in Healthcare Operations with Matt Kolb

Great partnerships make the difference in providing critical support to leading healthcare organizations' financial, clinical and operational decision-making. Owning the Future of Healthcare spoke with Health Catalyst’s partner, Carle Health, for an inside look at the importance of data and analytics in healthcare organizations. Matt Kolb, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Carle Health, shared his insights on providing that excellence.

As a healthcare delivery organization that owns hospitals and clinics, Carle Health incorporates data into its foundation, including performance decisions around quality, finance and patient experience.

While making data-centric decisioning is a key driver for the company, Kolb described a greater outcome and goal: “Analytics drives not just the decisions we make around performance related to quality or finance or patient experience… Our objective, our hope, is to be a trusted partner in all healthcare decisions.”

However, Kolb described having a difficult time developing and refining their own capabilities, so the company set out to find a partner to fill that role plus some more.

“Our goal was to enable care transformation, whether that’s on the provider side or the plan side of our business. And Health Catalyst rose to the top. We selected Health Catalyst because their organization is really about performance improvement and not just a data vendor.”

How to Leverage Data and Analytics for Rapid Response to Emerging Threats with Christopher Hutchins

Harnessing the power of data is fundamental for any industry. However, it can be more challenging in healthcare with multiple disparate platforms, compliance considerations, and unique workflows. With the right tools and strategies, leveraging data and analytics for better decision-making is possible. Christopher Hutchins, VP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Northwell Health System, shared how his organization is doing just that on Owning the Future of Healthcare.

Hutchins shared, “Most healthcare providers accelerated the adoption of analytics during the pandemic, as we did. We used it to learn and adjust on the fly and did a lot of early lifting to index COVID cases and coordinate activities for research.”

This quick response made it possible for their research division to circulate information for public health conversations and issue education regarding the virus and risks. “We did a lot more than we thought could out of necessity. Obtaining certain types of data had to be authorized for use, and we had executives doing this in real-time,” Hutchins said.

Data and analytics made it possible to plan for PPE, load balance, and share supplies. Having access to data was much easier with Northwell working with HealthCatalyst. Hutchins explained, “They come from a healthcare perspective and design technology to support it. They were willing to get in the sandbox with us and figure this out.”

Hutchins also spoke about the challenges of aggregating multiple data sources. “We needed to do this quicker and at a lower cost. In the last 18 months, we’ve been able to bring in EMR data sources, claims data, and three in-patient hospitals to one platform.”

How Health Catalyst Drives Better Population Health Through Data

Population health may seem like a marathon, but it is immensely beneficial for patient outcomes. Jonas Varnum, Vice President of Population Health Strategic Services at Health Catalyst, joined Host Hilary Kennedy to discuss how to implement population health.

The goal of population health is to create a better system with less waste. Currently, there are one trillion dollars in suboptimal care, which could be improved by 35 to 50 percent. Varied insurance models, such as commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, and others, provide a challenge in the different revenue they generate. Varnum explained, “The only real way to successfully deliver care is to have a scalable, systematic method of how you do population health across different patient populations.”

Implementation of population health means a system must answer innumerable use cases rapidly. They need to know how impactful certain patient populations are and ensure they are benchmarked appropriately. This includes examining whether utilization rates of certain services, such as emergency services and telehealth, are appropriate. Population health includes understanding patient population equity. Are patients receiving the right care at the right place and time?

Varnum explained how data is transferred to interventions such as care management, direct patient engagement, and quality measures. Health Catalyst embeds over 250 measures directly into the EHR. Clinicians can easily access them to meet specific criteria of the measures. This decreases administrative work and burnout.

Varnum’s take? “At the end of the day, what you really need to make sure that you’re doing, is understanding that after you worked that patient population, did it create outcomes?” He added, “The reality though is that if you actually have a systematic structure, then that marathon is a lot easier.”

Visit healthcatalyst.com for case studies and more information on population health or subscribe to the Owning the Future of Healthcare podcast.

A Strong Data Foundation Powers Product Development

Healthcare data is a valuable asset, but its collection, aggregation, and analysis are neither easy or simple. However, it’s the foundation for products that companies like Health Catalyst develop. Discussing the product and data perspective, the company’s first Chief Product Officer, Anne Marie Bickford, spoke with Owning the Future of Healthcare host Courtney Anne Echerd.

Bickmore began by talking about her journey. “I didn’t think graduating from nursing school, I’d have this position, but I’m glad to be blazing this trail.”

Bickmore’s background as a nurse prepared her very well for her current role. “A clinical background and one as an ED nurse helps me to pivot and look at what’s needed right now. It’s a way to triage.”

In discussing how she looks at data, Bickmore noted that the company’s products must be grounded in high-quality data. “The products sit on top of that, so the data analytics must be strong.”

Bickmore spoke about the challenges the healthcare industry faces. “We’ve been slower than others on standardizing, using, and getting the most value out of it. We have to combine sources then care and feed these data assets.”

Healthcare is now reaching a point where there’s better coordination of all these sources from claims, billing, and clinical. By doing this, many wonder if it’s good for the patient. Bickmore answered, “Yes, it is. We’re a patient-centric company that wants to empower organizations to cultivate data for the best outcomes. While these are operational applications, it’s still patient-centric because it keeps doors open, and patients have access to healthcare.”

What Bickmore noted is that the drive for better data shouldn’t be on the providers. “We need to use modern tools to make data more consumable. The tools need to change because it’s burning providers out.”

A Strong Data Foundation Powers Product Development

Healthcare data is a valuable asset, but its collection, aggregation, and analysis are neither easy or simple. However, it’s the foundation for products that companies like Health Catalyst develop. Discussing the product and data perspective, the company’s first Chief Product Officer, Anne Marie Bickford, spoke with Owning the Future of Healthcare host Courtney Anne Echerd.

Bickmore began by talking about her journey. “I didn’t think graduating from nursing school, I’d have this position, but I’m glad to be blazing this trail.”

Bickmore’s background as a nurse prepared her very well for her current role. “A clinical background and one as an ED nurse helps me to pivot and look at what’s needed right now. It’s a way to triage.”

In discussing how she looks at data, Bickmore noted that the company’s products must be grounded in high-quality data. “The products sit on top of that, so the data analytics must be strong.”

Bickmore spoke about the challenges the healthcare industry faces. “We’ve been slower than others on standardizing, using, and getting the most value out of it. We have to combine sources then care and feed these data assets.”

Healthcare is now reaching a point where there’s better coordination of all these sources from claims, billing, and clinical. By doing this, many wonder if it’s good for the patient. Bickmore answered, “Yes, it is. We’re a patient-centric company that wants to empower organizations to cultivate data for the best outcomes. While these are operational applications, it’s still patient-centric because it keeps doors open, and patients have access to healthcare.”

What Bickmore noted is that the drive for better data shouldn’t be on the providers. “We need to use modern tools to make data more consumable. The tools need to change because it’s burning providers out.”