Procedural or clinical analytics answer questions that impact medical device choices, contracts and cost of care. Information at this level is valuable for many uses, but it’s also very difficult to compile for good procedural analysis.
Analytics software helps sourcing teams easily review multiple individual cases to compare like-to-like utilization, and to spot variations and opportunities to improve standardization and contracts.
This Question and Answer blog tackles hard questions about procedural or clinical analytics. It’s the first of a two-part series and gives an overview of procedural analytics, while the second blog dives into four use cases for the information.
Curvo Vice President of Clinical Analytics, Nancy Stimson, RN, PMP, provides expert insights that will help supply chains build stronger analytics practices. This seasoned clinician dives into sourcing challenges faced by health systems, what to look for in analytics solutions, and what positive outcomes can be expected with good clinical analysis tools.
Q - What Data Is Needed for Clinical Analysis for Sourcing?
Nancy Stimson - The types of clinical data are really about cost and what goes into the cost of care, like times in, times out, the length of stay (LOS), readmission percentages, those kinds of things.
Clinical Fields/Metrics Can Include:
- OR time
- Anesthesia time
- Supply expense
- LOS based on daily room charges
- Pharmacy expense
Q - What Issues Do Sourcing Teams Face with Collecting Clinical Data?
NS - Collecting the right data is difficult because we're pulling from multiple sources. In other situations, health systems don't have their clinical data immediately available. It's just hard to coordinate who to get it from and who has what.
The problems are around IT and resource-related issues and defining exactly what we want, when and where, etc. Say we needed case times. That means the date and time in, the date and time out, and how does sourcing want that to appear data-wise? Do they want a colon in between the times? Do they need the seconds (which they don't.)
That's really what it always comes down to, because we need a lot of line-item detail which is very granular and nuanced. When you get to that level of detail, it takes clinicians working with data people and lots of working sessions to get it put together and looking right. But it takes a while to get that all put together.
Q - Why Is Having the Right People in the Room So Important?
NS - It’s as important to bring the right people together to discuss the data as it is to have the right data to review and analyze. It's having a real governance structure around value-based care and feeding into that framework, because you need certain consistent connections:
- Supply chain and whoever does their analysis, whether that's IT or Curvo or whomever
- Clinical expertise, because the doctors are very scientific and data-driven
But you have to have them in the room. A lot of systems forget that, or are unaware of where they could fit in. It's really the governance structure. A governance structure for data is also useful for good, meaningful comparisons.
Q - Talk About How to Work with Clinicians on Change Management
NS - First of all, it’s about getting the exact procedural analytics that people are looking for, which tend to be the same sorts of things over and over again. Once you get the data, the analysis of it is not insanely difficult, but really the issue is always, always, always getting the right people.
Supply chain can give clinicians the data, but you really need major change management with the docs, and everybody struggles with building those personal connections with busy professionals. Sourcing wants to compare costs and times, but where they struggle the most is that they have limited power or say in what a clinician does.
Q - What Makes Clinicians More Receptive to Utilization Discussions?
NS - Accurate data. What really helps gain buy-in is if you have knowledgeable people presenting solid data when you're having that conversation with clinicians. (Solution providers like Curvo can do that.) You don't want to talk to an orthopedic surgeon about GYN costs per case. You want to talk to an orthopedic surgeon about what they do, and they are very specific. They are receptive, but what helps gain that buy-in is to have accurate data that’s relevant to them.
Q - What Capabilities Are Needed in a Procedural Analytics Solution?
NS - A core functionality needed for procedure analytics is the same one that people choose Curvo for in the first place - data categorization. We have better categorization and supply utilization information than probably anybody. And that becomes very relevant when you're talking to providers about the details.
One vendor might give a provider a receipt based on what items are used in a case. But that's only one case, and nobody collates all that data together. Even if somebody could, if the doctors were really interested in getting a full on report together, I'm not sure that they could compare their cost at Hospital A versus Hospital B, which Curvo can easily do.
Q - How Does Sourcing Bridge Procedure Knowledge Gaps?
NS - What helps sourcing bridge that knowledge gap is solid data and analytics that compare real, live green apples to green apples, not a green apple to a red apple.
Data sources like these are fed into the Curvo platform, then out to health systems as enriched data:
- Public records
- EHR (anonymized)
- Supply data
- Other sources e.g., financial systems, blood bank
Curvo data enrichment turns the source data into useful clinical analysis. Next week, in Part 2 of this blog series, we continue our Q&A with Nancy Stimson, and explore some use cases for clinical analytics and enriched data.
More Resources about Clinical and Procedural Analytics
In the meantime, continue building your knowledge of procedural analytics and clinical spend management.
- How Reconciling Case & PO Files Impacts Procedure Analytics
- What IT Should Know About Clinical Spend Management Solutions
- Valuing Ongoing Cost per Case Data to Realize Savings
Meet Our Expert: Nancy Stimson, RN, PMP | Curvo VP of Clinical Analytics
Nancy Stimson is a performance-driven healthcare IT consultant with over 35 years of experience in clinical nursing, leadership, and organizational development. Having spent decades on the front lines as an OR nurse, she now dedicates her expertise to validating and enriching Curvo data. Her background in process improvement and change management makes her an invaluable asset in bringing innovation to the healthcare supply chain.