Tech-Enabled Managed Services Reduces Clinical Chart Abstraction Costs

THE CHALLENGE

MultiCare Health System and Pulse Heart Institute invested in clinical chart abstraction to support data submission to multiple clinical registries, enabling benchmarking of performance and ongoing performance improvement. Faced with escalating costs, Pulse Heart Institute evaluated options for decreasing abstraction costs while maintaining participation in meaningful registries and high data accuracy.

THE PROJECT

The solution for Pulse Heart Institute was Health Catalyst's Tech-Enabled Managed Services. Health Catalyst accepted accountability for lowering costs by using its Health Catalyst® data platform and related tools to optimize many manual tasks registered nurse (RN) data abstractors perform. Using the data and analytics platform, the organization performs thorough and precise searches to identify complete populations for multiple cardiovascular (CV) registries while keeping false positives to a minimum.

THE RESULT

Health Catalyst successfully increased the electronic capture of data elements required for clinical chart abstraction and registry submission for numerous CV registries. It optimized abstraction and decreased potential errors, optimizing substantial portions of clinical chart abstraction for percutaneous coronary intervention, chest pain, ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction, and Watchman cases. Decreasing the manual labor hours required for abstraction has also created the capacity for RN data abstractors to support more complex clinical quality improvement work.

• One FTE savings and $146K in labor cost savings, the result of optimizing clinical registry data abstraction.
• >35 percent increase in the electronic capture of data elements for numerous measures.
• Identification of numerous cases qualifying for abstraction and registry submission that were not identified using previous processes.

"Using Health Catalyst's Tech-Enabled Managed Services for clinical chart abstraction has reduced labor costs while ensuring we have the high-quality data required to continually improve and provide our patients outstanding CV services."
Gayle Howard, MSN, RN, Associate CNE Pulse PSR, Pulse Heart Institute, MultiCare Health System

ADDITIONAL READING

• Tech-Enabled Managed Services
• New Analytic Insights Improves Mortality O/E
• Tech-Enabled Managed Services: Smartsourcing Clinical Data Abstraction Reduces Costs and Improves Value
• Tech-Enabled Managed Services: Smartsourcing Clinical Data Abstraction Continues to Deliver Value While Reducing Costs
• Tech-Enabled Managed Services Improves Quality, Reduces Costs, and Optimizes Team Member Engagement