Healthcare in the current environment produces more data than ever before. With electronic health records, analytic tools, and reporting, there is great visibility when it comes to patient populations, risks, and quality performance. Healthcare providers will know who needs follow-up screening, who needs follow-up services, and where performance is lacking. It would appear that there is nothing standing in the way of success here.
Yet, gaps still exist.
Gaps in follow-up, gaps in prevention, and gaps in quality performance are still being seen. The problem does not lie with an absence of data but rather in another area.
But the key is execution.
In reality, addressing a care gap is far from being a linear exercise. What was meant to be an easy and straightforward workflow becomes a complex series of steps involving multiple platforms and parties. It starts with moving data from electronic medical records systems to spreadsheets, emails, calls, and so forth. Every single step introduces inefficiencies, while ownership, follow-up, and management of the process itself become a big problem. Finally, even having all relevant data in hand does not mean having a mechanism to ensure timely and efficient action.
This highlights an interesting problem that lies at the heart of most healthcare organizations. Over the years, the industry has spent enormous amounts of money on building its IT/data infrastructure, but it failed to create a solid execution infrastructure. Collecting insights and knowing how to proceed with certain actions is one thing; ensuring they are performed effectively and efficiently is another completely different issue.
For execution to be successful, a number of ingredients are required. The first requirement is visibility into patient populations and priorities, but that is still not sufficient. Each gap in care requires an owner who will be responsible for taking the necessary actions. The work flow should be established so that it facilitates action and doesn’t require manual processes to manage activities. Lastly, the outcomes need to be measurable so that organizations can track their success in closing the care gaps.
This problem is gaining more and more relevance as healthcare moves towards value-based care. Under such conditions, the outcome, not the activities performed, defines financial success. Failure to identify care gaps may result in financial losses, while inefficient execution will harm the quality score. Modern healthcare organizations are facing ever-growing challenges in optimizing operations, improving outcomes, and delivering measurable value. If there is no solution to the execution gap problem, it will only become harder to meet the objectives set.
Considering the matter from another point of view, however, offers some additional clarity. As I work in hospitality, an area where execution is of primary importance, I can state that all actions are assigned, procedures are well-defined, and results are tracked. In healthcare, a similar situation occurs: if insight is provided to a person who knows how to act based on it, the task will be completed. Hence, the difficulty lies not in figuring out what to do, but in implementing it.
As healthcare changes and develops further, there comes a necessity for organizations to abandon insight-based systems and develop ones focused on implementation and measurement of its results. Rather than increasing amounts of generated information and developing better dashboards, organizations need to create an opportunity for seamless transfer from one stage to another.
In conclusion, healthcare is not lacking in data. What it lacks is fragmented implementation. Until systems are put in place that can
convert data into action, there will always be gaps in patient care — despite abundant data.
About the Author
Akash Yengde is the Founder of CareMetric Hub, a platform focused on improving care gap execution in value-based healthcare. He studied at New York University and works at the intersection of healthcare operations and service design.
