Six Ways Health Systems Use Analytics to Improve Patient Safety

Six Ways Health Systems
Use Analytics to Improve
Patient Safety
HEALTH CATALYST EDITORS

© 2020 Health Catalyst
Proprietary. Feel free to share but we would appreciate a Health Catalyst citation.
Improving Patient Safety With Analytics
Annually in the U.S., one in three hospitalized
patients experiences preventable harm,
leading to over 400,000 deaths.
These unacceptable rates of avoidable injury
make improving patient safety a top priority
for healthcare organizations.

Examples of preventable patient harm include:
 Wrong-patient order errors
 Ineffective blood management
 Hospital-acquired infections
 Opioid dependence
 And more…

Fortunately, health systems can use
patient safety analytics tools and trigger-
based surveillance systems to better
understand the types of harm occurring
at their facilities, recognize risk, and
intervene to avoid adverse events.

Six Analytics-Driven Ways for Improving Patient Safety
Analytics-driven patient safety applications
are helping health systems decrease rates
of preventable harm by identifying and
measuring adverse events and guiding
interventions aimed at improvement.

These six examples show how organizations can leverage analytics tools to
better understand patient harm their facilities and prevent it from occurring:
Trigger-Based
Analytics to
Recognize
Wrong-Patient
Order Errors
Analytics-Driven
Patient Blood
Management
Improvements
Reducing
Hospital Onset
Clostridioides
Difficile
Infections
Reducing Opioid
Prescriptions
After Bariatric
Surgery with
Multimodal Pain
Management
Predictive
Analytics Make
Patients Safer
Through Event
Reporting and
Prediction
Collaborative,
Data-Driven
Approach to
Sepsis Mortality
Reduction
1 2 3 4 5 6

#1: Trigger-Based Analytics to Recognize Wrong-Patient Order Errors
There are more than 600,000 wrong-patient
orders each year in the U.S.—errors that
occur when healthcare digital platform users
mistakenly open the wrong patient chart
and enter an order for the wrong patient.
Retract-and-reorder triggers, which identify
when an order has been placed for a
patient, retracted, and re-ordered by the
same clinician, have demonstrated
effectiveness in determining the incidence
of wrong-patient orders.

One healthcare organization, comprised of a
specialty hospital and multiple clinics, sought
to improve safety for its patients, focusing on
identifying wrong-patient order errors.
By using various detection methods for
identifying wrong-patient errors and
establishing triggers that detect when a
wrong-patient order may have occurred,
hospital and clinic staff can investigate
instances.

As a result, for the first time, the organization
has comprehensive wrong-patient order data
and the ability to understand the number of
wrong-patient orders better, informing its
strategies to reduce wrong-patient orders and
improve patient safety.

#2: Analytics-Driven Patient Blood Management Improvements
Across the country, 14 million units of red
blood cells (RBCs) are transfused annually,
with an average of three units used per
transfusion at the cost of $300 per unit.
While RBC transfusion can save lives, it
can also cause harm and is strongly
associated with prolonged hospital stays as
well as increased costs, morbidity, and
early and late mortality.

UnityPoint Health created a task force to
develop and implement a plan for maximizing
blood management.
The task force incorporated decision support
to improve transfusion ordering in alignment
with the transfusion standards.

The health system also leveraged an
analytics platform, which monitors the
utilization of blood products, including
predictive modeling to risk-adjust blood
utilization specific to patient case-mix, and
data down to the ordering provider level.
With its blood management initiative,
UnityPoint Health decreased unnecessary
RBC transfusion by 58,089, reducing direct
costs over six years by $17.4 million and
avoiding exposure to RBC by transfusion
for 15,601 patients.

#3: Reducing Hospital Onset Clostridioides Difficile Infections
Hospital-acquired infections Clostridioides
difficile (HA-CDI), Clostridioides difficile,
are a significant patient safety concern for
healthcare organizations.
In the U.S., an estimated 223,900
hospitalized patients develop HA-CDI,
resulting in 12,800 deaths annually.

Community Health Network (CHNw)
discovered its HA-CDI rate was higher than
the national benchmark.
The organization knew it needed to
decrease infection rates, but without timely,
meaningful data, leaders couldn’t identify
where to focus improvement efforts

By leveraging a high-level, robust analytics
system that allowed better access to data,
team members determined where to focus
their improvement efforts.
CHNw achieved a 31.8 percent relative
reduction in hospital-onset CDI rate per
10,000 patient days, with 33 HA-CDIs
avoided, resulting in $855,000 in savings
in one year.

#4: Reducing Opioid Prescriptions After Bariatric Surgery with
Multimodal Pain Management
Chronic knee and back pain associated with
morbid obesity increases the risk for opioid
dependence among patients undergoing
bariatric surgery.
Mission Health sought a comprehensive,
data-driven, evidence-based approach to
reduce opioid prescribing after bariatric
surgery, decreasing the risk for misuse
and harm.

By using comprehensive enhanced recovery
after surgery protocols with multimodal pain
management interventions, Mission realized
substantial reductions in opioid use for pain
management among patients undergoing
bariatric surgery.

Results included a 29.3 percent relative
reduction in the number of opioids prescribed
during the intraoperative phase of surgery, a
35.4 percent relative reduction in opioids
prescribed during post-anesthesia recovery,
and 16.9 percent relative reduction in the
number of opioids prescribed during the
inpatient phase of surgery.

#5: Predictive Analytics Make Patients Safer Through Event Reporting
and Prediction
More than 21 percent of people in the U.S.
report experiencing a medical error in their
care, and 31 percent report an error in the
medical care of a relative or friend.
Despite a national push to improve the care
in U.S. hospitals, lack of safety and resulting
patient harm remain a significant concern to
hospitals and patients, fueled by the fact that
medical errors are now the third leading
cause of death in the U.S.

and Prediction
Determined to improve patient safety, Allina
Health turned to data analytics to standardize
and expand safety event reporting.
The organization plans to eventually develop
a system of predictive alerts to respond to
emerging safety concerns.

and Prediction
By utilizing the analytics application
and trigger tool, the health system has
successfully identified more safety
events than voluntary reporting alone,
uncovered opportunities for improving
patient care, and more.

#6: Collaborative, Data-Driven Approach to Sepsis Mortality Reduction
In the U.S., sepsis impacts more than 1.5 million
people annually, of which about 250,000 will die.
Health Quest had pursued efforts to reduce
sepsis mortality rates yet was unable to make
sustainable gains, despite instituting several
recommended prevention activities.

The organization used analytics to support
its collaborative, evidence-based, and
data-driven approach to improve the early
recognition and treatment of sepsis and
improve sepsis mortality rates.

Health Quest achieved a systemwide observed
over expected (O/E) ratio for sepsis mortality of
0.72, saving 92 lives in 10 months.
Health Quest also achieved a 57.1 percent
relative reduction in catheter-associated
urinary tract infection (CAUTI) standardized
infection ratio, and a 30.7 percent relative
reduction in C. diff infections.

Improving Patient Safety with a Better
Understanding of Patient Harm
Because patient harm drives up health
system costs, when organizations
leverage the right strategies and tools to
avoid or reduce harm, they can save
patient lives and improve experiences
while also reducing costs.
With over 400,000 avoidable patient-
safety deaths per year, patient safety
offers ample opportunities to improve
healthcare delivery and, most
significantly, save lives.

For more information:
“This book is a fantastic piece of work”
– Robert Lindeman MD, FAAP, Chief Physician Quality Officer

More about this topic
Link to original article for a more in-depth discussion.
Six Ways Health Systems Use Analytics to Improve Patient Safety
Healthcare Safety Culture: A Seven-Step Success Framework
Stan Pestotnik, MS, RPh, Patient Safety Products, VP
Engaging Health System Boards of Trustees in Quality and Safety: Six Must-Know Guidelines
Stephen Grossbart, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer
How to Use Data to Improve Quality and Patient Safety
Stan Pestotnik, MS, RPh, Patient Safety Products, VP; Valere Lemon, MBA, RN, Senior Subject Matter Expert
Preventing Medication Errors: A $21 Billion Opportunity
Stan Pestotnik, MS, RPh, Patient Safety Products, VP

Other Clinical Quality Improvement Resources
Click to read additional information at www.healthcatalyst.com
Health Catalyst is a mission-driven data warehousing, analytics and outcomes-improvement
company that helps healthcare organizations of all sizes improve clinical, financial, and operational
outcomes needed to improve population health and accountable care. Our proven enterprise data
warehouse (EDW) and analytics platform helps improve quality, add efficiency and lower costs in
support of more than 65 million patients for organizations ranging from the largest US health system
to forward-thinking physician practices.
Health Catalyst was recently named as the leader in the enterprise healthcare BI market in
improvement by KLAS, and has received numerous best-place-to work awards including Modern
Healthcare in 2013, 2014, and 2015, as well as other recognitions such as “Best Place to work for
Millenials, and a “Best Perks for Women.”

Six Ways Health Systems Use Analytics to Improve Patient Safety

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Six Ways Health Systems Use Analytics to Improve Patient Safety

Similar to Six Ways Health Systems Use Analytics to Improve Patient Safety (20)

More from Health Catalyst

More from Health Catalyst (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Six Ways Health Systems Use Analytics to Improve Patient Safety