Posts – Clinical Variation

Reducing Patient Costs through Machine Learning and Comparable Supply Categorization

  Written by Megan Bultema, Chief Data Scientist and Jackie Kokx, Data Scientist Until recently, clinical practitioners focused almost exclusively on providing individual patients with safe and accurate treatment. Physicians favoured methods that yielded the best outcome for patients solely on a case-by-case basis.   The needs of the medical sector, however, are changing. An […]

Why Reducing Clinical Variation in Surgery is Crucial to the “New Normal” of Care

When entrepreneurs build companies, they have a simple goal: to progress from an initial concept to a repeatable, profitable business model. For the first few months, the firm builds out its operational model. Then, once it attains the winning formula, it hopefully rinses and repeats. The resulting consistency drives down costs and improves quality, helping […]

The Untapped Waste in Healthcare Supply Chain is Physician-centric

Written by David Heath and Dan Pietrusinski   According to a recent Modern Healthcare article and Navigant study, hospitals have a $25.7 billion cost savings opportunity – equating to an individual hospital savings of up to $12.1 million per year or the equivalent of 165 registered nurses.1 This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to […]

Doctor Preference Cards: A Recipe for Success

Written by Ann Putnam, RN, MSN, CNOR Every day all types of surgeries are scheduled and carried out in operating rooms across the country. How do the staff know the unique surgeon preferences for each of the procedures on the surgery schedule? How does the perioperative team know what to open and when to hold […]

It’s not just about WASTE in healthcare, it’s also about TRASH

Written by Scott Christensen, MBA, Client Service Executive   According to a recent JAMA review, the cost of waste in the U.S. healthcare system ranges from $760 billion to $935 billion annually.[1] This waste is attributed to administration complexity, pricing, failure of care delivery, overtreatment or low-value care, fraud and abuse, and effectiveness of care […]

Four Lessons for Working with Surgeons

Written by Wendy Gort, MBA, Data Scientist/Analyst   In my twelve years of experience as a healthcare data analyst, I’ve discovered that working with surgeons can be incredibly rewarding, yet equally challenging.  I’ve worked with many different types of clinicians, and while they all possess admirable qualities, I have grown to appreciate the unique relationship […]

Cohorts: Using More Meaningful Data to Identify Unwarranted Clinical Variation

Written by Megan Bultema, Ph.D., Chief Data Scientist Healthcare systems across the country rely on data to help solve one of the largest challenges they face — how to improve the value of the care they deliver to patients by reducing cost and improving quality. Data, however, is not a magic wand, and traditional ways of […]

Improving Surgical Outcomes with Analytics Enabled Consulting

The Big Data era has ushered in a new wave of technology to help healthcare systems stabilize costs and drive better patient outcomes. The complexity of healthcare systems requires a combination of knowledge, technology and strategy to significantly impact costs and outcomes – especially in perioperative departments, which are a major cost driver for hospitals. […]