Using Data to Manage Physician Practices More Effectively
Managing a physician practice is no easy task. There are so many moving parts to consider, from scheduling appointments to managing staff and finances. But with the right data analytics tools, managing a physician practice can be made much simpler. By using data to create metrics, healthcare providers can measure the performance of their practice and identify areas for improvement.
In practice, though, there are a multitude of systems where the data lives, and so much data available that it can be overwhelming. The result is that practice leaders are managing for today versus managing to performance.
“While the amount of data analytics available is daunting, it is the essential component to a successful physician practice,” says Hank Duffy, CEO of JHD Healthcare Partners.
Key Data Elements to Measure
“Over our 20-year history, and conducting countless physician group turnarounds, there are five key areas to focus data analytics,” continues Duffy.
1. Appointment Data: Set within the scheduling system, is a vast amount of data to help you measure appointment types and tailor a provider’s schedule based on trends. By doing so, the practice runs more efficiently, wait times are reduced and patient satisfaction is improved.
2. Coding Data: Another area that can help the practice lies with the electronic health record (EHR). By focusing on coding trends, appointment schedules can further be refined. In addition, identifying patterns in patient care improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
3. Patient Satisfaction Data: Analyzing how patients feel about the care experience at your practice is essential to ensuring a successful physician practice. The problem is this may be the hardest area to receive data, and there are so many different data analytics services to gather this data, like Press Ganey. But, creating an environment where patients are satisfied with their experiences, means they are likely to return and recommend you to others.
4. Physician Satisfaction Data: Physician burnout is higher than ever, and part of the reason is because measuring how satisfied they are with their jobs and roles isn’t a standard metric practices measure. The insights received when physicians are regularly surveyed is invaluable for the practice and patients.
5. Cash and Denials Data: Within the revenue cycle management system lies a critical component of running a successful physician practice. With a focus on measuring cash collections and identifying and addressing trends in claims denials, financial performance and revenue will increase.
Conclusion
Healthcare data analytics is a powerful tool that can help healthcare providers to unlock the power of their data and improve patient care. By using data to manage physician practices more effectively, measure patient and physician satisfaction, and improve overall patient care, healthcare providers can increase efficiency, reduce costs, increase revenue and improve patient outcomes.
Managing a physician practice through an analytical framework takes a lot of up-front work to bring all the data points together. JHD Healthcare Partners can help set your practice up with its Blitz, a 1–3-week assessment that gathers all of your data and provides a cohesive reporting system. Contact us today.