Mercy Big Data Project Aims to Boost Operations

Abstract 

The healthcare industry generates large volumes of data. Influenced by the mandatory need and its ability to improve the quality of care and minimize costs, big data promise to support many healthcare functions. This is why Mercy Hospital adopted Mercy Big Data Project. This paper presents the benefits and value realized in Mercy Big Data Project, solution to documentation problems in the new data management system and other areas that can benefit by implementing big data. 

Mercy Big Data Project Aims to Boost Operations 

Big data can be described as electronic health data that is so vast and complicated and therefore difficult to manage using the common software/hardware. Analytics from big data has the ability to improve health care, decrease costs and save many lives (Balgrosky, 2015). In addition, big data can help in many other areas such as revenue cycle management. Mercy Hospital has realized benefits from the Mercy Big Data Project Implementation. However, with implementation of Big Data Infrastructure come a number of challenges. One of the major challenges that the new data management system at Mercy hospital has experienced is documentation problems by physicians.

Mercy Big Data Project

Mercy Hospital is venturing into big data in order to improve healthcare quality and efficiency of its operations. The hospital collects a wide range of data and that is why a data management infrastructure was implemented through the Mercy Big Data Project. The hospital needed real-time data and therefore a new data management infrastructure was required.

Benefits and value-realized in Mercy Big Data Project

Since implementation of the new data management infrastructure, Mercy has seen a significant improvement in both clinical and administrative processes. Good data is important in the clinical decisions making process which lead to better patient outcomes and reduce mortality rates (Balgrosky, 2015). On the other hand, data that is wrong and not timely can lead to decisions that are not accurate and likely impacts on mortality. The project to improve medical documentation has been of significant contribution in clinical processes. Healthcare staff comes with decisions that are real time depending on results from the laboratory, images, patterns in histories of patients etc.

With improved medical documentation at Mercy Hospital as a result of the new data management system, health care staff are able have access to patients medical information on time hence able to make informed and accurate decisions. In addition, the hospital has realized major improvements in developing admission claims thanks to the new data management system. In the past, the hospital created claims after a patient’s discharge and it was difficult to get information after discharge. However with the new data management system, health care personnel are able to feed all patient information into the system and this helps in development of claims (Balgrosky, 2015). In addition, the system has enabled clinicians detect other medical conditions during a patient’s stay in the hospital besides the main reason for admission. This has contributed to improvement in patient outcomes and a decrease in mortality rates.

The new data management infrastructure has improved medical and nursing informatics in the hospital. Clinical decision assistance by Electronic Health Records system is a crucial facet in medical informatics. The support gives offers prompts about specific patients to the end users (Balgrosky, 2015). In addition, the support system offers information support to doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and other health care personnel. This help in delivery of appropriate care to patients at the hospital. Furthermore, the programmed algorithms of the new data management infrastructure assist in examining risk factors during patients’ progress and more patient data is entered into the new data management system (Balgrosky, 2015). This has led to improved and high quality care in the hospital and improved documentation of disorders that were frequently under-documented in the past.

In the long term, the new Mercy data management infrastructure will assist in saving costs for the hospital because billing will be properly done and financial management improved, reduce mortality rates, ensure high quality care, better patient outcomes and proper data and records management. In addition, big data will assist the hospital in making informed decisions that are more informed by accessing large amounts of data from the system. In the short term, the system has improved patient outcomes, enabled tracking of patient health, access to patient information by health care providers and development of treatment approaches that are customized.

Solution to Documentation Issues

The new Mercy data management infrastructure could identify likely documentation or behavior problems. Information about signs, symptoms and notes and other patient aspects depends on entry by health care providers such as doctors and nurses. Therefore, the possibility for errors in documenting is rife. As previously stated, wrong data leads to making of wrong decisions which negatively impact patient outcomes and endanger patients’ lives (Balgrosky, 2015) . Besides errors related to entry of data, there exists bigger issues with documenting clinical information in an electronic format (Balgrosky, 2015) . The existing policies on reimbursement need wide documentation and in most cases physicians make use of templates which propagate errors/mistakes. 

Such problems would be corrected by training health care providers on how to use the new implemented technology at the health facility. Adequately training physicians, nurses and other health care staff would help prevent the same mistakes again. Considering that the technology is new at the hospital, health care staffs members need to adapt to the new data management infrastructure and training would be of help. When trained, they become comfortable with the technology and proficient in use. This would significantly reduce the likelihood of documentation errors. 

Application of Big Data in Other Areas 

Big data can be used in other areas such as Revenue cycle management and in post-acute clinical and billing systems e.g. skilled nursing (Balgrosky, 2015) . Revenue cycle management in the healthcare sector is in most cases complicated by alterations in insurance products and contract agreements (Balgrosky, 2015) . Activities in revenue management include preparing claims, billing, accounts etc. As a result of the increasing number of visits by patients to the provider, the amount of data in revenue cycle management has significantly increased. The complexities and large volumes of data involved would benefit if a big data management infrastructure would be put into place. 

Post-acute care involves a number of services that aim to restore normal function of individuals who were recently hospitalized (Hunt, 2008). One major problem in post-acute care is clinical consensus on the patients that require post-acute care and the kinds of post-acute care appropriate for different patients. This problem expose patients to health care decisions that are not formed based on clinical aspects (Hunt, 2008). In addition, financial incentives for providers are not established based on the necessary factors too. However, with a data management infrastructure like the one adopted by Mercy hospital, post-acute care facilities can have patient information entered into the system and develop protocols that would assist physicians make clinical informed decisions about patients. In addition, the system would help with billing which is another major issue in post-acute care settings (Hunt, 2008). 

Conclusion

In conclusion, Mercy Hospital has realized a number of benefits and value from the implementation of the Mercy Big Data Project. The new data management infrastructure, has led to significant improvement in both clinical and administrative processes. With training to address the physician documentation issues, the Big Data system is expected to deliver more benefits for the hospital.

Reference

Balgrosky, J. A. (2015). Essentials of Health Information Systems and Technology. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

Hunt, S. (2008). Data Management in Home Care: Using Data to Drive Acute Care Hospitalizations.  Home Health Care Management & Practice, 20 (2), 175-179. Doi: 10.1177/1084822307306647