- Unplanned hospital readmissions are one of the costliest services in healthcare, with organizations shelling out billions each year on these frequently avoidable episodes.
With the rise of value-based care initiatives, most notably CMS’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), organizations are looking for ways to use their many sources of data to cut down on expensive readmission rates.
From electronic health records to newer data assets like genomic data, healthcare entities now have more materials than ever to generate actionable clinical insights.
What are some of the ways hospitals can use big data analytics to reduce hospital readmissions, lower costs, and improve health outcomes?
Each year, the healthcare industry spends billions of dollars on preventable services, including hospital readmissions. Reducing readmission rates will require organizations to deliver preventive, forward-thinking care to those patients who need it most.
By examining patient data, providers can start to see which factors will impact future health outcomes, and begin to develop risk scores and predictive algorithms to create tailored care interventions.
While some organizations may feel they lack the necessary data to build these capabilities, research has shown that entities can form predictive models with less-than-perfect data.
For example, a team at the University of Washington Tacoma developed a predictive analytics algorithm to flag 30-day readmissions for heart failure patients. The tool used several common clinical and demographic metrics, but could also function without the inclusion of certain variables, making it useful for providers and patients who may not have all of the data on hand.
Healthcare organizations can also use data elements that are typically overlooked to develop risk scores.
Advocate Healthcare, a Chicago-based health system, was able to cut readmissions and save hospitals more than $4.8 million by implementing a patient nutrition care program.
“Value-based care means looking comprehensively at patient care to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement,” said Lee Sacks, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer of Advocate Health Care.
“The study's findings demonstrate that modest changes in the way we care for patients, such as ensuring patients are nourished during their hospital stay, can have a big impact in reducing costs and improving health outcomes.”
To avoid returning to the hospital, patients must understand how to stay healthy after they leave. While it can be difficult for any patient to follow post-discharge instructions, adhering to care plans can be especially complicated for patients with multiple chronic conditions, particularly if they don’t communicate with their providers.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reports that nearly 20 percent of Medicare chronic disease patients were readmitted to a hospital within 30 days because their condition worsened.
Of those readmitted patients, nearly half had no post-discharge contact with healthcare professionals.
To reduce readmission rates, providers can use data-driven patient engagement tools to help individuals follow their treatment plans.
