Solutions

Solutions powered by
Learn More.
abaqis for Skilled Nursing

abaqis®

Mitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.

Learn More

NEW TO THE STORE

hStream Content Marketplace

Connecting you to the best content in our industry-leading marketplace. Streamline content purchasing, updates, hosting and connectivity for your organizational needs.

NurseGrid Learn

Online store for Clinical Learners. Individual CE Credit and industry products for Clinical Learners are now available through NurseGrid Learn (Beta). Explore our robust collection of courses that provides an unparalleled level of flexibility and choice.

LATEST & POPULAR

BLOG

Nurse Strikes are Scary, but License Verification Doesn’t Have to be
BLOG

Ten Trends for 2023: Rising Temperatures and Generational Changes
BLOG

Ten Trends for 2023: CMS Cuts and Other Disruptors
BLOG

Ten Trends for 2023: Hospital at Home and Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care
BLOG

Ten Trends for 2023: Emerging Technology and Cybersecurity
BLOG

Ten Trends for 2023: Financial Woes and Staffing

< HealthStream Resources

Clinical Analytics and Competency

Clinical Analytics and Competency

December 21, 2021
December 21, 2021

Virtually all healthcare organizations are repositories of huge and perpetually growing amounts of data. Some data is collected as part of mandated programs such as the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys. Some data is collected as part of federal, state and local regulatory requirements and some is collected by the organization to insure that the organization will meet its own organizational goals and objectives. Regardless of the source of the data, it can ultimately be a difficult to impossible task to insure that the data is being synthesized in such a way as to make it meaningful and truly useful to the organization.

Clinical Analytics – What is It?

Clinical analytics helps healthcare leaders use medical data (in real-time or not) to generate insights, make decisions, improve revenues, reduce costs, reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes. Clinical analytics can aggregate the large amounts of disparate data that all healthcare organizations have to improve decision making and identify opportunities for improvements in quality and efficiency.

Focus on clinical analytics has been increasing over time perhaps because of the move towards accountable care and value-based reimbursement. Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are groups of doctors, hospitals and other providers who deliver high-quality, coordinated care to their Medicare patients. Coordinated care that delivers the right care at the right time is higher quality care and can also reduce healthcare spending, but it depends on having actionable data that will help drive treatment decisions and reduce errors. Another key driver in the emergence of healthcare analytics is the prevalence of electronic health records or (EHR). EHR puts health information in the hands of providers instantly and can also be mined for analytical purposes. Of course, while EHR contributes to the collection of data, it does not aggregate or report the data in such a way as to make that data meaningful on a more global level.

Clinical Analytics Can Support Competency

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) identifies six key components of quality:

  1. Safety
  2. Effectiveness
  3. Patient-Centeredness
  4. Timeliness
  5. Efficiency
  6. Equity

EHR can provide organizations with data that will provide performance data on each of these six metrics. It can end there unless there is a coordinated effort between health data scientists, technology and quality experts and providers. Clinical analytics can turn this data into actionable information that providers can use to drive towards safer and more effective and efficient care. It can also be foundational to improving individual provider competence.

Clinical Analytics and Competency Solutions

Once your organization has tapped into the power of clinical analytics the next step is using that analysis to optimize the appropriate support through training. HealthStream's suite of competency products can help you connect the dots between what your organization has learned from its' clinical analytics and what your team needs to build competency.  

Clinical and workforce data can be used to reduce errors, provide safer, more effective care and build a culture of patient and family-centered care. It can also help build engagement, retention and satisfaction by providing training that supports growth and career development.