One of our biggest challenges as a Clinical Department is how we evaluate and improve the work we do. There is no question that fast and iterative data analysis is fundamental to improvement. And looking at data from multiple perspectives and in multiple combinations is at the root of effective data analysis.
Seeing Data from Multiple Perspectives
Clinical Looking Glass gives us the ability to easily take various perspectives on data. We can look at subpopulations by age, by disease, and by readmissions; we can look at many criteria at once, such as the relationship between outcomes and medications or the effect of interim outpatient visits on readmissions. Time-bound analyses are one of CLG's unique and powerful capabilities, allowing us to look at the care to each patient as a function of when that patient started treatment. And we can do all this ourselves, without having to wait for IT, whose priorities are often not aligned with ours.
With CLG we can look at how lab values are changing over time. Are we actually reducing the Hemoglobin A1c for our patients one year and two years later? If there is a new protocol with contraindications for a medication, we can easily identify the patients on that drug to see if we want to make a change.
Target Outreach Efforts Based on Risk
We use Clinical Looking Glass to target our outreach efforts to patients based on their risk. For example during flu season, CLG enabled us to recognize that there were two categories of patients – those who met the recommended criteria for flu shots and those whom our doctors believed were particularly high risk because of their diagnoses, test results, demographics and other criteria. Using CLG I broke our patients into these two categories. For the low risk category we sent a letter; for the high-risk category we initiated aggressive outreach. The result was a dramatic reduction in actual versus projected flu cases for the high-risk category.
Rapid Ad-hoc Reporting
I use CLG regularly to generate ad-hoc management reports. When our medical chief wants data for a staff meeting tomorrow, I can easily retrieve that data. I do not have to go through a process of requesting data from our IT department, fighting for position on their queue, or waiting again if the study I produce raises new questions. I can easily change the study design and generate new discoveries on my own.
Some of our clinicians do not want to take the time to pore through data. They raise the questions; together we discuss the exclusionary and inclusionary criteria; and I use CLG to get the answers.
Understanding Patients through Data
Using CLG to transform data into actionable information, I have been able to help our organization demonstrate improved performance for our most difficult-to-treat patients. Our results with these difficult patient populations exceed those of our Medical Center averages. When I share our results and improvements with other organizations or present them at conferences, colleagues are amazed at what we are able to measure, achieve, and prove. Our accomplishments are impossible without CLG; we use it for everything!
Contact us today for more information.