This article is sponsored by Maxwell Healthcare Associates. In this Voices interview, Home Health Care News sits down with Raul McGee, Director of Analytics at Maxwell Healthcare Associates, to talk about the significance of interoperability in the value-based care model. He explains how predictive analytics can be used more effectively to achieve better outcomes, and he also discusses some of the key ethical considerations around data use in today’s home-based care environment.
Home Health Care News: What life and career experiences do you most draw from, in your role today?
Raul McGee: A few experiences come to mind for me. About a year out of college, I started a position as a Systems Analyst supporting two different Electronic Medical Record Systems for the Homecare, Hospice, and Skilled Nursing Facility units of the healthcare organization I was hired by. The foundational knowledge I gained, not only around healthcare and IT, but also around juggling multiple projects and workstreams, set me up to take on the challenges of my current position. During this time, I also worked as a consultant for MHA which further took me along the path of home health, hospice, and data.
My previous role as a Business Analyst put me in a position between the business and the developers, assisting with the organization and development of a multiyear data migration project. During this time, I was able to get a firm grasp on how a data engineering shop can function effectively and efficiently. What I have learned, and continue to learn, is that listening, especially to those with more experience and knowledge than me, is the one of the most important skills one can develop in their life.
The home health and hospice industry often struggles with fragmented data stored in various systems. How can improved data interoperability empower better analytics and care coordination across settings?
Through strategic system integration, an organization can utilize objective data to drive decisions from the top down. Patients and employees alike speak through the data representing them across these systems. When these systems are not communicating with each other, great insights can be missed that may otherwise have been captured and allowed for improvements to be made. For example, clinicians who are unhappy in their job may underperform which can lead to patient dissatisfaction. A great way to address this is to use the data at an organization’s disposal across its systems and find out why this clinician is unhappy and address it. The more strategically an organization can allow systems to talk to each other can result in more detailed analysis of all parts of the organization, and ultimately, better care for its patients.
What is the potential of predictive analytics in home-based care, specifically with respect to identifying risk and enabling proactive interventions?
More and more companies are turning toward predictive modeling to get ahead of themselves as an organization and their competition. In this industry, the focus seems to be getting ahead of the patient and making care for them easier and more efficient. By accessing the data stored by the EMRs, analyzing historical trends both at an individual and group level, and building models from them, we can again use objective data to prove or disprove hypotheses for why a specific type of patient may be in decline or may be at higher risk of complications than another.
Enough rigorous testing can open the gate for the prediction of such cases with high certainty. The key is testing and action. If the data begins to tell a story that aligns with the initial hypothesis, we can follow that path and trust in the model that will allow for action to be taken. On the flip side, if the data seems to disprove the hypothesis, we still follow that path to see where it leads and adjust accordingly. By working alongside some of our partners like Medalogix, I have seen how powerful such analytics can be. At MHA, we are beginning to open that door ourselves and see how we can better predict the needs of the patients we and our clients serve.
How can providers leverage data analytics to demonstrate the value of their care and optimize their performance under the new value-based models?
The beauty of data analytics, to me, is that agencies can look under the hood and see at a detailed level what is truly going on within their organization. Through the data that is already being captured, agencies can track outcomes and patient satisfaction enabling them to show quantifiable proof of the quality of care they provide. This can lead to more tailored interventions and streamlined care coordination which, in turn, can demonstrate the improvement of patient outcomes across the organization. Ultimately, the more an agency can utilize their data, the more they will be able to adjust to such reimbursement models.
How can improved data standardization facilitate better benchmarking and performance comparisons between agencies, ultimately improving the quality of care?
Being able to level the playing field and speak the same language is crucial in ensuring that an agency is operating efficiently, offering better continuity of care, enhancing its data analytics, and saving on general costs, to name a few. For an agency’s efficiency, standardization practices off a simplification of the time and effort put into data entry and management. If the employees know there is a standard to follow, or if the systems are set up such that a standard is enforced, there is less strain on those employees who may otherwise need to decipher how certain data fields should be manually entered or mapped.
As for continuity of care, this allows for seamless sharing of information among the caregivers. Again, the removal of ambiguity makes everyone’s lives much easier. This leads to the enhancement of analytics that can be used to drive decisions across the agency and facilitate benchmarking for KPIs that an agency may want to track. If we expect specific data to say the same thing each time, visualizations of that data can be used knowing that, again, there should be very little ambiguity on how to interpret it, and we can trust that our benchmarks are accurate. Lastly, cost savings flow naturally from the rest. Standardization can enable fewer mistakes in data entry and less time (money) spent on tasks.
How can home health and hospice providers ensure responsible data collection, usage and patient privacy protection in the age of big data?
Especially in the realm of health care, it is critical that agencies ensure patient data is being collected and handled with care. Having robust data governance policies that outline the collection, usage, storage, and sharing of data is a great foundation for agencies to have. These policies, of course, need to comply with HIPAA and any local, state, and federal laws surrounding data privacy and security. Keeping analytics in mind, the flow of data will be ever-present at most agencies, so the adoption of solid security measures including encryption of data at rest and in transit, implementing access controls at a role-based level (which EMRs and many visualization tools offer), and the use of multi-factor authentication all are great measures to keep data secure and safe. Regular internal auditing can be a great step toward maintaining compliance and identifying any potential risks and vulnerabilities. Taking this a step further, agencies should have an incident response plan in place for data breaches and establish mitigation strategies for such cases.
Finish this sentence: “In the home-based care industry, 2024 will be defined by…”
…technology integrations and predictive analytics.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Maxwell Healthcare Associates is a team of post-acute industry veterans passionate about helping home health and hospice providers thrive amid healthcare’s disruptive environment. They bridge gaps and advance care by creating solutions focused on people, processes, and technology. To learn more about Maxwell Associates’ home health solutions, visit maxwellhca.com.
The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].
