Sure, more patient data can lead to deeper insights and better care. But the sheer amount of EHR data can become taxing before long—especially if you don’t have a plan to manage EHR data growth.
Some estimates indicate that by 2020, more than 25,000 petabytes of healthcare data will exist. To put it in perspective, 1 petabyte equals 1 million gigabytes—an incredible amount of data. In fact, healthcare data takes up so much space that one study found that 30 percent of the world’s data storage resides in the healthcare industry. Every time you provide care, bill for services, or respond to a message, you’re adding more data to the mix and making it increasingly difficult to manage EHR data growth.
If you don’t already have a data management strategy in place, you need to develop one right away. Not only will a plan help you manage your EHR data growth, it will help you turn data into actionable insights. Using those insights, you can make informed decisions that will streamline operations, improve patient care, and achieve better outcomes. Here are a few tips you can use to tame the beast and best manage your EHR data growth:
• Develop a data governance strategy. Before you invest in technology that will help you manage and interpret EHR data, you need a data management strategy. Remember: more data doesn’t necessarily mean better results. A good governance strategy will help you determine what kind of data you need and how to access it. What problems do you want your data to solve? What outcomes will your data help you achieve? When you can answer those questions, you’ll be well on your way to creating a good data governance strategy.
• Gather quality information. Many hospitals have rushed to implement EHRs in order to maintain compliance. However, few organizations have a plan in place to ensure that accurate information is entered into every health record, every time. Incorrect data is often the result of a simple human error–but it could cause a life-threatening fallout if physicians make decisions based on faulty input. At the very minimum, healthcare organizations should provide training to help staff members learn how to accurately gather and record patient data. On top of that, some algorithms can test data for accuracy and eliminate mistakes such as duplicate information or discrepancies in procedural and billing codes.
• Move data to one centralized location. Data fragmentation is a common problem in healthcare organizations. You need to access to data from several areas—such as EHR data, financial records, and payor information—in order to make informed decisions. Gathering all of that data and putting it into one location in a usable format is key to managing your data growth. Having one data warehouse can help cut down on data fragmentation. However, in order to truly improve data management you’ll need to invest in IT solutions that will put our data in a usable format and retrieve the information you need quickly.
• Invest in technology solutions. The good news is, your EHR should provide some help with data management. Most EHRs allow you to consolidate, centralize, and securely access your patients’ data. But if you want to take data management one step further, a healthcare CRM (HCRM) could help, too (and you can get great recommendations here). HCRMs help you integrate, measure, analyze, and report on data from a variety of sources. This means you can gather and interpret data from your EHR, engagement centers, social media, and mHealth in order to develop a robust view of your patients. Ultimately, this can help you act upon quality patient data, which can assist you in improving patient care and communications.
While these tips can help you manage EHR growth, your data management plan won’t work unless you have all the key players on board. From harnessing important information, to using data for marketing, to helping patients manage their health, it takes a village to execute a well-organized data management plan. However, sound data management practices can help healthcare organizations make better decisions and provide better care—even as the mountain of data continues to grow.
Megan Pacella is a writer for TechnologyAdvice.com. She is a Nashville-based freelance writer specializing in healthcare, wellness, and lifestyle content. In addition to writing for national outlets such as USA Today, she works with a variety of healthcare companies to create patient engagement and education programs.
