How much is it costing healthcare organizations to track and report on hospital quality metrics? According to a recent study published in JAMA, Johns Hopkins spends over five and a half million dollars a year on this massive undertaking, with most of that in labor costs.
Numbers like these have healthcare leaders asking: “How can we make this easier and more efficient?”
“Preparing and reporting data for these metrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital required an estimated personnel cost of more than $5 million plus more than $600,000 in vendor fees.”
— David Raths, Healthcare Innovation
How can you rein this in?
Most healthcare organizations aren’t sure where to even start with their metrics, which is understandable. The amount of data that must be tracked is overwhelming by any definition. And, because there’s no single department responsible for all metrics, the cost and responsibility for maintaining them is spread across the entire organization, which only adds to the confusion. (And, ultimately, the costs.)
Ask any healthcare leader who’s responsible for making sure claims-based metrics are accurately tracked and very few could give a solid answer. Same goes for chart-abstracted metrics. Typically, no one is quite sure who should be keeping metrics consistent or where to go when they have questions.
This makes an already labor-intensive process even more convoluted and less efficient.
The good news is, there’s one tool that can change the game. That tool is called a healthcare metric hub—and it not only pays for itself in reduced labor costs, it directly contributes to higher quality and better leadership.
The good news is, there’s one tool that can change the game. That tool is called a healthcare metric hub.
What’s a healthcare metric hub?
In short, a healthcare metric hub is a central repository where all the definitions for everything your organization is tracking are stored (including details, like contact information for whoever oversees each metric).
This hub is then linked to every report your organization creates, thus automating the process of aligning your metrics, and equipping you with better, more accurate, more transparent insights.
Can a healthcare metric hub really reduce costs?
The answer is yes. Significantly.
There are many ways an automated central repository for your metrics can reduce costs and improve the efficiency (and accuracy!) of the quality measures you’re tracking. Here are just a few:
- A metric hub ensures everyone in your organization is using the same parameters for every metric being tracked—eliminating errors and confusion in the reporting of those metrics.
- Having a metric hub in place reduces the need for manual chart abstraction—one of the biggest labor costs when it comes to healthcare metrics.
- With a metric hub, you’ll always know who has ownership for each metric, so you can quickly reach out to ask questions or resolve issues.
- A healthcare metric hub also eliminates redundant tasks, like needing to update a metric’s definition in every existing report. For example, when CMS updates the list of CPT codes included in the Surgical Site Infections metric, your IT team no longer has to go into every report and dashboard that includes that metric to make the update. Instead they only have to update it once in the healthcare metric hub, saving time and, just as importantly, eliminating all kinds of potential errors.
- When a metric hub is the foundation behind your executive dashboards, leaders can instantly drill down for details, and can quickly find answers like, “What does this metric include?”; “How is it defined?”; and “What factors are impacting it?”
In short, a healthcare metric hub eliminates the need to run around validating your metrics, figuring out where your numbers are coming from, and reconciling conflicting reports. Instead, all of your metrics are consistently defined and consistently updated, and it’s always immediately clear where to turn with questions.
A healthcare metric hub eliminates the need to run around validating your metrics and reconciling conflicting reports.
Does your organization need a healthcare metric hub?
Compendium has the only metric hub designed for healthcare, and it’s proven to deliver real value. Our team walks you through the entire process of aligning your metrics, implementing the hub, and ensuring ongoing results.
If you’re ready to reduce the costs of your metrics, the Compendium Healthcare Metric Hub makes the process more efficient, less costly, and more accurate, every step of the way.
