Pivotal Player: QUEST Hospital Collaborative Uses Data Analytics to Save Lives and Reduce Costs
Image Courtesy of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems
As health IT continues to be a burgeoning field, data analytics has become one of the core emerging areas in this new arena. By arming healthcare practitioners with the proper patient data, hospitals are better able to save lives, be more efficient, and reduce overall costs.
In addition, with U.S. healthcare spending growing at 17 to 19 percent annually, cost containment is of utmost importance. This is why hospitals that are part of the QUEST collaborative are this week’s pivotal player: they have managed to keep overall growth in costs to 4 percent annually.
By using data analytics, these hospitals are able to measure, compare, and scale innovative solutions for patient care across its 293 hospitals in 38 U.S. states. In addition, 157 hospitals in the collaborative have saved 24,820 lives and an estimated $4.5 billion in costs to date.
The way the QUEST collaborative saves money is by organizing committees to evaluate and select products and services that meet this cost-savings mission. From there, its staff then works with member hospitals and clinics to implement the contracts, resulting in tremendous savings.
QUEST also aggregates hospital data on quality, safety, and lab data, and its comprehensive database covers one out of four U.S. hospital admissions.
The QUEST collaborative is not the only example of using data analytics and other innovations to reduce healthcare costs. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) are rolling out a comprehensive Integrated Electronic Health Records (iEHR) that will have 9.8 million beneficiaries. This new iEHR will allow the DoD and VA to quickly and easily mine patient data for accurate and timely health diagnoses.
In the healthcare arena, there is no margin of error when it comes to serving patients and saving lives. The QUEST collaborative is an example of how to use the most cutting-edge innovations to meet this critical need, while also saving money at the same time.
