From the December 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Taking this model one step further, the same behavioral tools being used for privacy analysis can be easily deployed for operational analysis. A hospital executive can get a quick picture as to what all their employees are actually doing within their institution. For example, it has been recently reported by Health Data Management that physician time is rapidly being consumed by administrative tasks. Physicians routinely state that they spend an enormous amount of “overtime” related to EMR activities, and in the process, job dissatisfaction and professional burnout are on the rise. How valuable would it be to quickly determine exactly who are the anomalous physician users who are spending 3 hours rather than 30 minutes in the EMR at the end of their workday? Data like this can help target training resources toward the specific physicians who need it, thereby increasing physician satisfaction and retention.

Another scenario that comes to mind is getting a deeper understanding of what specific provider behavior patterns are causing bottlenecks and decreases in patient satisfaction. Through the tracking of ordering behavior (what, where and when), physicians who are not issuing timely pharmacy, radiology or other orders while with their patient can cause loss of income for the institution, an increase in patient calls, and ultimately, patient dissatisfaction.


Finally, identifying the totality of patient care activities classified by diagnosis can inform the institution where it is making money and where it is losing money. Although hospitals must treat all patients presenting themselves for treatment, it would certainly make sense not to launch a magnet advertising campaign for a diagnosis/department that consistently loses money for the hospital.

Many midsized and smaller institutions do not have access to the large, expensive data analysis systems in the marketplace that require the support of a cadre of data analysts to extract data, and which place a heavy burden on their IT departments. Behaviorally-based systems allow these institutions to answer key operational questions without high expense, staffing requirements or extensive IT involvement. This is where the future of operational efficiency improvements lies for mid- and small-sized hospitals which have the same actionable information requirements as larger institutions, but not the budget to get them there.

About the author: Robert B. Kuller has spent the majority of his 35-year career in the health care industry working for companies such as Solvay, Siemens, Keynomics, Liquent, Real Media, Kamine Technology Group and Haystack Informatics, in senior and top executive capacities. In addition, he has successfully founded, managed and sold two businesses.

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