Editor's note: This feature story contains references to success stories showcasing how health systems have improved the lives of the individuals and populations they serve by successfully integrating their data and analytics strategies to drive massive, measurable results.
Nurses are vital in our healthcare system, which has only been amplified in recent years.
During the pandemic, for instance, they faced never-before-seen circumstances and had to balance patients' emotional and psychological support, manage the pressures of increased patient loads, and navigate the challenges of resource shortages. They also demonstrated a prominent role in public health education, shouldering the responsibility of informing communities about safety measures.
Considering their ever-expanding role, the American Nurses Association has aptly themed this year's National Nurses Week (May 6-12), The Power of Nurses™, spotlighting the need for continuous education and the application of data-driven clinical quality improvements.
Healthcare organizations are evolving their data and analytics platforms to provide clinicians with real-time tools to improve patient outcomes.
Mission Health, for example, implemented the Health Catalyst data and analytics platform and a robust suite of applications, including the Trauma Advanced Analytics Accelerator, to provide health practitioners insight into trauma brain injury (TBI) data. Previously, the care team worked with retrospective data over 12 months old.
The new system sifts through 500+ data points for each patient to highlight trends, outcomes, and care delivery patterns in real time. The care team can review patient data proactively, including length of stay, readmission rates, and care costs.
Equipped with these analytics, care teams make informed, data-driven decisions that enhance patient outcomes and care efficiency.
Actionable insights into care variation also support continuous quality improvement in nursing, directly impacting patient outcomes and the overall efficiency of healthcare services.
Robust data and analytics help nurses visualize the impact of care variances on outcomes. This engages and educates nurses, activating an improvement culture. They can then work with leadership to identify best practices, standardize care protocols, and target improvements over time.
Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center (New Hanover) established a data governance structure focused on decreasing care variation and improving outcomes.
In this process, New Hanover used analytics to identify and endorse improvement initiatives, ensure accountability for achieving outcomes, and evaluate the costs and benefits of the improvement efforts. As a result, New Hanover achieved cost reductions of $5.4 million.
Patient communication tools like Twistle by Health CatalystTM can streamline the care process and extend nurses' reach beyond hospital walls.
Using Twistle, health practitioners can communicate with patients post-discharge, ensuring adherence to care plans and early detection of potential issues. The automated messaging system saves time by reducing routine follow-ups and enhances patient engagement and satisfaction. This, in turn, improves patient outcomes by fostering adherence to treatments. In addition, the Twistle platform is asynchronous, allowing nurses to choose when to respond to patient communications.
The Medical University of South Carolina Health (MUSC) utilized Twistle to collect and analyze patient data to continually refine care strategies, leading to better healthcare experiences and outcomes.
National Nurses Week prompts us to consider nurses' critical and compassionate work and how we can support them with the right technologies, tools, and learning opportunities. These resources make tasks more manageable and expand their capacity for delivering effective, efficient care.
Ready to start your transformation journey? Contact us to learn how you can integrate data and analytics effectively to drive success in your health system and join the ranks of those revolutionizing healthcare delivery.
