Ascension Health turns to care partners, data to reduce readmissions

To turn big data into big changes in readmission rates, executives at Ascension Health created strong partnerships with others in the care continuum.

The Edmundson, Missouri-based health system, which boasts 77 hospitals in 23 states, combines its data with a focus on patient behavior in its communities, which has so far enabled it to drop readmission rates, according to Ann Hendrich, senior vice president and chief quality and nursing officer, and Mary Paul, vice president of Information Services.

Ascension has more than 1,500 care sites overall, and uses those partners in its data analytics projects, Paul tells HealthITAnalytics.com

"Our clinical partners lead these initiatives, whether they are around medication management or access to primary care," she says. "We are highly engaged with supporting the technology that would enable rapid identification and management of those conditions, so we are working very hand-in-glove with our clinical leaders."

In another example of teamwork when it comes to healthcare data use, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh just announced a partnership, along with UPMC, to create new data-based innovations.

Centers led by Pitt and CMU will carry out the work to create products and services using data that will focus on changing how diseases are prevented and how patients are cared for.

Ascension first looks to make sure it is asking the right questions surrounding the problem that they are looking to solve through the use of data. Once clinicians know their target, they can make sure they extract only the most relevant data, Paul says.

That data then is used to give each patient individualized attention, because every case is unique, Hendrich says.

"We can predict fairly well which patient is likely to get in trouble from their clinical situation, but their social determinants are just as important," she says.

The use of big data and data analytics in the healthcare industry is growing, especially when it comes efforts like Ascension's to improve population health.

National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo recently told The Nation's Health that it is now time for healthcare "to recognize that really improving the quality of care, and seeing that we're able to spend our dollars more wisely in that care system, requires us to really roll up data into big data."

To learn more:
- here's the article