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Improving Patient Safety: Lessons from a Military Operations Framework

The operational military concept known as “left of bang” endorses continuous situational awareness to avoid harm proactively—before it occurs. Healthcare, however, operates reactively in response to patient harm, often intervening once a patient safety event has occurred, versus using practices and tools to recognize and respond to threats.
Applied to patient safety, a left-of-bang approach teaches frontline clinicians to increase sensitivity to and stay in constant vigilance for threats before they happen, moving down a scale of situational awareness levels:

White: Tending to the tasks at hand but largely unprepared for disruption and unaware of the conditions around them.
Yellow: Constantly understanding the safety vulnerabilities of day-to-day healthcare.
Orange: Ready to use the needed skills and tools to react to an event.
Red: Taking action and laser focused on the issue at hand.

The Secret to Patient Compliance: An Application of The Four Tendencies Framework

Every day, healthcare professionals face the challenge of determining how to get patients to make good healthcare decisions and follow recommendations. The Four Tendencies framework, developed by The New York Times bestselling author Gretchen Rubin, can make this task easier and improve patient compliance by revealing how each person responds to expectations. By asking this question, healthcare practitioners can gain exciting insights into how patients respond to expectations to in order to help them achieve their goals.
This report covers the following:

An overview of each of the Four Tendencies.
An understanding of how these tendencies can affect behavior in a healthcare setting.
Practical tips for working with patients and colleagues that fall into different tendencies.

Lean Healthcare: 6 Methodologies for Improvement from Dr. Brent James

The survival of healthcare organizations depends on applying lean principles. Organizations that adopt lean principles can reduce waste while improving the quality of care. By applying stringent clinical data measurement approaches to routine care delivery, healthcare systems identify best practice protocols and incorporate those into the clinical workflow. Data from these best practices are applied through continuous-learning loop that enables teams across the organization to update and improve protocols–ultimately reducing waste, lowering costs, and improving access to care.
This executive report based on a presentation by Dr. Brent James at a regional medical center, covers the following:

How lean healthcare principles can help improve the quality of care.
The steps healthcare organizations need to take to create a continuous-learning loop.
How a lean approach creates financial leverage by eliminating waste and improving net operating margins and ROI.

Infographic: Statistics from the 2018 Healthcare Analytics Summit

The 2018 Healthcare Analytics Summit statistics are on display in this fun infographic. A few of those statistics show our commitment to put on an educational, valuable summit:

1300 attendees from 419 organizations
97% overall satisfaction rating
98% likely to recommend to a friend

The 2018 Healthcare Analytics Summit: Thursday Recap

In the final day of the 2018 Healthcare Analytics Summit in Salt Lake City, we were treated a continuation of the highest-rated keynote lineup in the event’s 5-year history. Dr. Penny Wheeler shared some important tips about improvement. Three digital innovators showed mind-blowing technology and approaches that will forever change healthcare, and Kim Goodsell showed us all why she’s the only the first of her kind—the data-empowered, genomified patient of the future.

The 2018 Healthcare Analytics Summit: Wednesday Recap

The first full-day of the 2018 Healthcare Analytics Summit (HAS 18) featured keynotes from Marc Randolph (Co-Founder, Netflix), Dr. Brent James, Dr. Daniel Kraft, Dr. Toby Cosgrove, Dr. Jill Hoggard Green, and Dr. Robert Wachter. Two waves of breakout sessions covered success stories from organizations all over the nations, complete with countless lessons learned.

Survey Shows the Role of Technology in the Progress of Patient Safety

A lack of effective technology is impeding the progress of patient safety, according to a 2018 survey of healthcare professionals. Even though most healthcare organizations claim safety as a priority, serious challenges remain to making a significant impact on patient safety outcomes.
Survey respondents said ineffective information technology and the related lack of real-time warnings for possible harm events were the top barriers to improving patient safety. They cited a number of key obstacles:

Lack of resources.
Organization structure.
Lack of reimbursement for safety measures.
Changes in patient population.

This survey of more than 400 healthcare professionals tackles a big question many hospital leaders are asking: Why aren’t we seeing improvements in patient safety despite our efforts?

Five Reasons Why Health Catalyst Acquired Medicity and What It Means for Interoperability, as Explained by Dale Sanders, President of Technology

Why did Health Catalyst acquire Medicity? Dale Sanders, President of Technology, shares five reasons and what it means for interoperability:

Medicity has several petabytes of valuable data content.
Medicity’s data governance expertise.
Medicity’s 7 x 24 real-time cloud operations expertise.
Medicity’s expertise in real-time EHR integration.
Medicity’s presence and expertise in the loosely affiliated, community ambulatory care management space.

Data Warehousing in Healthcare: A Guide to Success

Looking for a way to share his extensive experience with data warehousing in healthcare, in 2002 Dale Sanders wrote what many consider to be the “EDW Bible.” It’s a document with guidance that, if followed, will drive value and utilization from a data warehouse. We’ve made that report available now.

The Future of Healthcare AI: An Honest, Straightforward Q&A

Health Catalyst President of Technology, Dale Sanders, gives straightforward answers to tough questions about the future of AI in healthcare. He starts by debunking a common belief: We are awash in valuable data in healthcare as a consequence of EHR adoption. The truth involves a need for deeper data about a patient.

The Key to Healthcare Mergers and Acquisitions Success: Don’t Rip and Replace Your IT

Healthcare mergers and acquisitions can involve a lot of EMRs and other IT systems. Sometimes leaders feel like they have to rip and replace these systems to fully integrate organizations. However, this is not the answer, according to Dale Sanders. This report, based upon his July 2017 webinar, outlines the importance of a data-first strategy and introduces the Health Catalyst® Data Operating System (DOS™) platform. DOS can play a critical role in facilitating IT strategy for the growing healthcare M&A landscape.

8 in 10 Hospitals Stand Pat on Population Health Strategy, Despite Uncertainty Over the Affordable Care Act’s Future

A 2017 survey by Health Catalyst shows that despite uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act, 80 percent of healthcare executives have not paused or otherwise changed their population health management strategy. 68 percent said that PHM is “very important” to their healthcare delivery strategy, while fewer than 3 percent said it was not important at all. The results show that executives view the move to value-based care as inevitable, and they view a PHM strategy as an integral part of their future efforts.

HAS 17 Metrics—From Attendee Experience to Superheroes

Using survey results from the 2017 Healthcare Analytics Summit™ (HAS) conference, the HAS team has compiled an infographic of key insights. Featured metrics include:

Overall satisfaction: 99.4 percent
Likelihood of recommending to a friend: 98.4 percent.
Attendee metrics, such as healthcare experience (27.6 percent with 11 to 20 years) and type of organizations represented (healthcare, 45.7 percent).
Organizational population health status (successful initiatives, 63.2 percent).
Organizational level of analytics adoption (intermediate, 49.7 percent).

Combined, the HAS 17 metrics revealed high overall satisfaction with what attendees viewed as a true educational experience. Participants also reported deep healthcare expertise, a positive outlook on population health and value-based care.

Chilmark Report Studies the 2017 Healthcare Analytics Market Trends and Vendors

Chilmark’s 2017 Healthcare Analytics Market Trends Report is a trove of insights to the analytics solutions driving the management of population health and the transition to new reimbursement models.
The report reviews the analytics market forces at work, such as:

The need to optimize revenue under diverse payment models.
The increasing importance of analytics in general, and a platform in specific, that can aggregate all data.
Continuing confusion about how to react to MIPS and APMs.
The growing importance of providing a comprehensive set of open and standard APIs.
The need for better tools to create analytics-ready data stores.

The report is also a succinct guide to the 17 leading analytics vendors (which represent EHR, HIE, payer, and independent categories) with the most promising products, technology, and services offerings in the market.

Interactive Healthcare Dashboards Are Gaining Momentum

Workers in today’s healthcare systems need dashboards with more power, interactivity, and visual feedback than traditional static reports are able to provide. Users also need to understand how and where to make improvements based on the dashboard’s information. To provide such deep insight to the data, a healthcare dashboard should have the following characteristics: be easily accessible, display reliable data, contain relevant data, be up-to-date for the task at hand, and include trends and/or benchmarks. When the right type of dashboard is combined with a late-binding data warehouse, users will gain access to the knowledge their data holds to drive lasting and effective improvement initiatives.

HAS™ 16 Metrics: The Who, What, Why…and 80’s Nostalgia

The HAS 16 Metrics have been compiled into this infographic. See what 1,045 attendees from 281 organizations think about the future of value-based care and analytics. Seventy-four percent of attendees identify as healthcare providers, and 95 percent say the role of analyst within their organization is important or very important. Most participants (80 percent) think that value-based reimbursement will make the quality of care better or somewhat better. And, in reference to the 80’s Night held at HAS 16, most attendees picked Super Mario Brothers as their favorite 80’s video game, narrowly edging out Pac-Man.

Wednesday Recap: 2016 Healthcare Analytics Summit™ Kicks Off

On Wednesday during the 2016 Healthcare Analytics Summit, attendees heard from Anne Milgram on how criminal justice can provide insights for healthcare, from Dr. Bishoff on how Intermountain Healthcare improved care, from Dale Sanders and Dr. Freier on how a small town in Minnesota improved the lives of its citizens, and how a game of the Price Is Right by Tom Burton can teach us all a thing or two about surviving in a value-based world. This was in addition to 12 outstand breakout sessions from healthcare systems and experts from all over the nation.

Thursday Recap: 2016 Healthcare Analytics Summit™ Finale

Thursday at the 2016 Healthcare Analytics Summit started with a moving presentation from Dr. Don Berwick. Keynotes from Liz Wiseman, Dr. David Torchiana, and Dr. Strauss rounded out the general session. Breakouts included the word debut of a card game designed to teach outcomes improvement governance principles, a comprehensive lesson in running a successful care management program, and much more.

2015 Healthcare Analytics Summit™: Thursday Recap

The final day of the 2015 Healthcare Analytics Summit started with presentations from on value-based care delivery, population health outcomes, and analytics from keynote speakers Dr. Caleb Stowell (ICHOM), Dr. Timothy Ferris (Partners HealthCare), and Dr. Timothy Sielaff (Allina Health). There were some outstanding breakout sessions. And it finished with a bang-up presentation from Ed Catmull, president of Pixar.

2015 Healthcare Analytics Summit™: Wednesday Recap

Wednesday at the 2015 Healthcare Analytics Summit was a full day of learning and fun. The day included keynote presentations from Daryl Morey, General Manager of the Houston Rockets, Jim Collins, best-selling author of Good to Great, and Amir Dan Rubin, President and CEO of Stanford Health Care.

Healthcare Analytics Summit™ Day One Recap

The 2014 Healthcare Analytics Summit kicked off September 25, 2014 in Salt Lake City. Billy Beane was the first keynote speaker, sharing his insights on using analytics in baseball, as documented in the movie Moneyball.  Dr. Glenn Steele then shared his insight into Geisinger’s history and experience with data. Next keynote speaker up was Dr. James Merlino from Cleveland Clinic, who shared his experience and learnings as the Chief Experience Officer for one of the largest, most respected healthcare systems in the nation. The breakout sessions included a Healthcare Analytics Adoption Model survey from Dale Sanders, a lesson in making healthcare waste reduction actionable from Drs. David Burton and Greg Stock, a presentation on organizing for analytics success by Steve Barlow and Holly Rimmasch, a hands-on workshop in getting the most out of your data analyst by John Wadsworth, and finally, a user group kickoff/product roadmap review by Holly Rimmasch, Tom Burton, and Steve Barlow posing (literally) as the Three Amigos. The day ended with two fascinating keynote presentations. First, former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt discussed the future of healthcare reform and government’s role in the process. Then, Google futurist, Ray Kurweil shared how the acceleration of technology will drive healthcare to places we can only image.

Healthcare Analytics Summit™ Day Two Recap

The second day of the 2014 Healthcare Analytics Summit on September 25, 2014 was another day packed full learning. It started with an analytical recap of the previous day. Then, Dr. Penny Wheeler shared her experiences as President and Chief Clinical Officer of Allina Health and how the organization got to be ranked in the top three for quality metrics in the country according to Modern Healthcare. Next up was Dr. Macias, Chief Clinical Integration Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital. He told some amazing stories about successful clinical improvement projects at the hospital. Then, Dr. David A Burton talked about an accountable care transformation framework and how population health management should fit into the conversation. The breakout sessions included Stanford Health Care’s Yohan Vetteth and Dr. Bohman sharing how their organization uses analytics to improve outcomes in population health and HF readmissions reduction; Health Catalyst’s Tom Burton with his hands-on presentation on how to drive clinical improvement that gets results; Dr. Sreekanth Chaguturu from Partners HealthCare presenting on key principles and approaches to population health management; and, John Henderson from Texas Children’s Hospital and Bobbi Brown and Leslie Falk from Health Catalyst showing how to get ROI out of your healthcare analytics projects. The next keynote was from Health Catalyst’s Dale Sanders on predictive analytics. This was followed by a documentary film about Health City Cayman Islands entitled “From the Heart: Healthcare Transformation from India to the Cayman Islands.”

I Already Have a Data Warehouse. Can I Use Health Catalyst Applications With It?

Learn how your existing data warehouse could benefit from Health Catalyst’s advanced analytics applications. Options available include: Custom applications, Cloud data warehouse, Parallel platform, Feeder data warehouse, New data warehouse platform.

How We Really Feel about Working at Health Catalyst

As Health Catalyst, we love working here. Besides the great benefits, work environment, and opportunities for growth, we’re most appreciative of the way our leaders care about us. Watch this fun video to see what it’s like to work here.