Data overload isn't a good thing
Data overload isn't a good thing
Identify a small number of important metrics
Dealing with too much data is "like drinking from a fire hose," says David A. Snyder, MD, vice president of patient care quality and safety at MCG Health in Augusta, GA.
"Sort out what things are particularly hot right now," he advises. "We've done a data inventory and have identified over 4,000 metrics that we track regularly related to the processes of care at our hospital."
As a physician, Snyder says he would find it very difficult to deal with 4,000 metrics. Instead, he says, "identify ones that have shown up again and again." He gives the example of three metrics involving antibiotics for surgical cases: the timing of preoperative administration, the choice of antibiotics, and the time it takes to discontinue them after surgery.
"We have asked our surgeons to focus on those three things and a handful of other metrics associated with actions that have been shown to improve surgical care, not the literally thousands of others that aren't necessarily relevant or actionable for them," says Snyder. "Sorting through all the background noise to find those pearls is another way that quality professionals can help staff."
Your data must make sense to the people who receive them and be considered valid. "That point is more important than how much data you give them," says Kevin Tabb, MD, chief quality and medical information officer at Stanford (CA) Hospital & Clinics. "If they don't trust the data are correct, then it doesn't matter whether you provide a little or a lot."
Also, physicians want to see that the data focus on things that will truly impact patient outcomes. Some medical staff members may think that some of The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals, for example, don't affect patient outcomes.
"Some of these things just don't make much sense," says Charles Emerman, MD, associate chief of staff in charge of quality and chair of the department of emergency medicine at The MetroHealth System in Cleveland.
He gives the example of a requirement for educating patients and families about central line-associated bloodstream infection prevention. "What is the patient going to do? How is that going to help?" he asks. "It's just one of those things that somebody will do a checkbox for, but it won't have any effect."
Instead, he says, physicians are interested in hearing about practices that will affect patient outcomes. "You get overwhelmed by meeting all of these goals that don't focus on actually improving things," says Emerman. "With everything else that physicians have to address in their day, you can't do 12 things at once. You need to pick high-impact things."
Chart audits and gathering data must be done for compliance, but Emerman argues it's also important for quality professionals to step back for some portion of their day or week and ask, "What is really going to impact patient care here, who do I need to involve, and how do I make this a priority for the decision makers?"
Dealing with too much data is "like drinking from a fire hose," says David A. Snyder, MD, vice president of patient care quality and safety at MCG Health in Augusta, GA.Subscribe Now for Access
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