BUSIN E SS M A NAG E M E N T
Using Predictive Analytics to Optimize Surgical Care, Reduce OR Costs is scheduled. Physicians love it because they are able to save time and use their blocks more efficiently.” One hospital was able to save about $4 million per year by SAN DIEGO—A potential strategy to reduce the astronomical block time reduction alone. “The biggest challenge is trusting costs of the OR, where one minute can fetch up to $133, is to the data,” Ms. Bhatnagar said. “With the models running behind integrate predictive analytics, according to a presentation at the the scenes, you are able to go back to the surgeons and adminis2021 OR Business Management Conference. trators to give them an early warning of how likely a particular “The goal of surgical operations is to improve outcomes while block will be used next month, based on the previous data and also improving efficiency and reducing cost,” said Shikha Bhatthe observed trend.” nagar, the CEO of Healthinsights.ai, an artificial intelligence The surgeon can then take a deliberate action, such as releas(AI) company that provides prepackaged analytics products for ing his block, so another surgeon can use it instead. “We provide the healthcare industry and associated services.. an actionable insight to our surgeons,” she said. To help offset the cost of an inpatient stay, ay, “We do not believe that a machine can fix things,” Ms. Bhatwhich is 2.5 times higher for surgical casess nagar said. “We believe in humans interacting with the data to than nonsurgical cases, advanced analytics can n remedy a problem. But data can only take you up to a certain “enable desired surgeon workflows and deci-point. A lot of cultural change is required as well.” sioning at the time of need, in real time,” A common mistake in healthcare is to centralize the data she said. from multiple local clinical processes, according to Bruce RamAmong the most important areas to evalshaw, MD, the founder and managing partner of, and a shareuate are first-case delays, turnaround times, Shikha Bhatnagar holder in, CQInsights PBC, a healthcare data analytics and inefficient scheduling practices, underuse consulting company headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn. of blocked time, and supply cost comparisons of procedure and surgeon. “Centralized data generates averages but lacks insight,” he said. According to Ms. Bhatnagar, the five levels of analytics are: “The data should be decentralized into context for each whole defin• Level 1: manual input and manipulation of data able process in each local clinical environment. Many subpopulations, like minorities, are not well represented by averages and may • Level 2: manual data extracts from electronic health records suffer harm from algorithms produced using centralized data sets.” and running metrics in Excel Dr. Ramshaw said the small clinical team that actually pro• Level 3: integrated data sourcing and building of basic vides the surgical care should determine what data points and reports/dashboards outcome measures are collected in each local clinical environ• Level 4: mastering retrospective reports with data ment. “The same team should also apply insights gained from integration, plus moving to predictive analytics each analysis to improve outcomes that are measured,” he said. • Level 5: all of the above, plus building and deploying However, because real-world data “is messy, the data requires predictive surgery models to forecast block usage, surgical regular cleansing and feedback loops working with the front-line volume and more, and then delivering those insights to clinical team in each local environment to assess and improve the administrators, surgeons and decision makers quality of the data,” Dr. Ramshaw said. ■ “You need to have driven-data conversations,” Ms. Bhatnagar said. “For example, if a particular service line is not using its Dr. Ramshaw is a member of the editorial advisory board of block, talk to them. Perhaps Fridays can be eliminated if nothing OR Management News. By BOB KRONEMYER
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OR Management News • Volume 7 • March 2022
