I was speaking with a Chairman of Surgery today and we were discussing the continual need for information in all facets of his department. He kept saying that his monthly financials were not right - they couldn't be.
He thought for sure that the charge volumes and work RVU's for many of his providers were inaccurate.
After more discussion, I finally understood where he was coming from. It was not that the reports were technically incorrect - it was that the business processes and supporting analytics were not designed in a way that delivered the information needed to make decisions. Not all of the charges were being reconciled and entered and some of the procedures had unlisted procedure codes that had no RVUs. While seemingly easy to resolve, these particular issues take time to work through and arrive at a point where the information being provided to key stakeholders is trusted.
How many times have you heard that someone does not believe in the data being provided? Typically, this is financial information. Imagine moving to a world of clinical information where all healthcare providers are benchmarked according to industry standards. How many of us are really going to believe these numbers?
The reality is that sites are already emerging with this information. Sites such as hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, patientsfirstma.org and healthgrades.com. How credible is this information? Is this all self reported data?
The real challenge for healthcare quality will be how we get to unbiased and reliable data we can all trust and believe in. Consumer Reports is the goto source for comparing many products. They have a rigorous process for evaluating and rating competing products. Don't we also need this for healthcare providers? It would be nice to know from an unbiased third party what the strengths and weaknesses are of the healthcare providers in your area. I wonder where our Consumer Reports for healthcare will come from?
Chris George, CEO, Think First
http://www.thinkfirst.us/
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