St. Joseph Health Leverages Real-Time Health Data Analytics to Reduce Readmission Rates and Enhance Proactive Care

The application of big data in healthcare has begun to demonstrate its value. VCBeat has learned from multiple overseas media sources that many U.S. healthcare institutions have started leveraging analytical software to process medical data and derive benefits, with key applications including significant reduction in disease recurrence rates, improvement in healthcare management, identification of high-risk populations for certain diseases, and real-time data processing.

St. Joseph is a Pioneer in Medical Data Analysis

“Data analytics enables us to systematize the process of identifying high-risk populations, rather than being led by the nose,” said Jessica Taylor, Medical Director at St. Joseph’s. “I can focus on high-risk groups instead of casting a wide net. Previously, however, it was difficult to obtain data even while patients were still hospitalized,” she added. “Information was updated nightly, so I could not keep up with it in real time until the patient was discharged.”

As early as January 2015, St. Joseph Healthcare became the first medical institution in Maine capable of processing real-time data within the health information network.

Maine was the first state to achieve statewide hospital information exchange. Its Health Information Exchange (HIE) platform connects nearly 1.3 million residents of Maine by integrating the majority of the state’s emergency medical centers and 376 providers. This enables all organizations participating in the HIE to share and utilize data.

“While many healthcare organizations are using data analytics software in multiple aspects of their daily workflows, HealthInfoNet, as a healthcare institution participating in the HIE, is able to obtain data from all hospitals affiliated with the HIE,” said William Wood, Vice President of St. Joseph Healthcare Center.

The first task for physicians each morning is to input the previous night’s medical data, enabling them to establish workflow schedules, formulate work plans, and monitor populations at high risk for disease.

One of the primary benefits of the data analytics software at St. Joseph Health Center is the reduction in recurrence rates to approximately 10%, which is 5 percentage points below the state average. Notably, within a six-month period, the emergency department reported a 15% decrease in disease recurrence rates.

The reduction in disease recurrence rates is not because healthcare institutions keep patients under treatment for longer periods, but rather by discharging them to home care and lowering their risk of relapse through preventive measures.

HealthInfoNe’s partner, Palo Alto, claims that it developed St. Joseph’s data analytics solution based on California’s hospital management program, after Maine Governor Paul LePage vetoed the Medicaid expansion bill.

“We have attempted to identify uninsured patients and implement tiered management for them,” he said. “When these tools were first introduced, I immediately screened for high-risk, uninsured patients. We operated based on data, and now the visit rate among high-risk patients has decreased significantly.”

“We know exactly who these high-risk populations are,” Taylor said. “We are leveraging cutting-edge tools to address the issue, shifting from a reactive approach to a proactive one as these patients engage with our services.”

St. Joseph is also assisting other hospitals in ensuring the maximized utilization of this technology, such as Penobscot Community Health Care, which serves 40,000 patients. “They have a very large health management program and have begun using analytics tools. We can help them leverage these analytics tools,” said Taylor.

Without data analytics tools, healthcare institutions would be vastly different. Data analytics makes healthcare management more precise and efficient.

Medical Data Analytics Awaits Further Development

Data analytics entails more than simply collecting data to enable healthcare organizations to better estimate and measure medical value; rather, it will become an integral component of their IT strategies.

The problem is that while most healthcare executives view data analytics as a significant opportunity, most healthcare institutions are unsure where to begin.

First, the healthcare industry as a whole is not yet capable of fully leveraging analytics for data analysis, as many organizations are still in the exploratory stage regarding medical data analysis. Additionally, it remains challenging for healthcare alliances to collect data from multiple applications and channels and conduct analyses.

Secondly, patients require more personalized treatment; however, most healthcare institutions will not implement it unless it becomes an industry standard. Healthcare data management needs further development. Although the concept of population health management is gaining popularity, healthcare providers are still grappling with how to maximize the utility of population health management tools.

According to HIMSS Analytics’ population health research, approximately 67% of healthcare organizations have population health management programs. However, only one-quarter of these organizations adopt standalone platforms to address their needs.

HIMSS Analytics surveyed approximately 200 healthcare executives regarding their perspectives on population health and inquired about related population health IT strategies. Approximately 60% of the participants reported not having a population health management consultant; however, more than half of these respondents indicated plans to hire such professionals in the future.

Finally, it is crucial to determine when, where, and how to utilize medical data analytics tools, and appropriate strategies must be adopted to address related challenges. While a vast amount of data is generated from patients, the more critical issue lies in effectively leveraging this data to unlock its potential value. It is essential to evaluate treatment efficacy using patient medical data, identify effective therapeutic interventions, and apply them accordingly. Another significant concern in population health analytics is ensuring the security of medical data.

In 2015, EMC (EMC Corporation, a U.S.-based information storage and technology company) conducted a poll on healthcare data management issues. The results showed that 81% of healthcare executives believed their institutions lacked the capability to process data in real time. Among all participants, 40% were unable to implement effective solutions for data processing, and half of the respondents reported having no clear idea how to handle relevant data within their organizations.

Therefore, healthcare institutions need to seek assistance from service providers with professional data processing capabilities. By leveraging the specialized data analysis expertise of these providers, healthcare institutions will build confidence in data analytics and further enhance diagnostic and treatment efficiency.