Plugging a Gaping Hole in Health Industry Data Collection Practices

As electronic health records have become increasingly complete and rich with useful data, some have come to think of the goal as being achieved. So much can be gleaned from digital health records today that it is fair to say that a new era of analytic power has opened up, and the successes of the movement have led many to feel that basking in the glow of victory was appropriate.

The truth is, however, that there is still a gaping, obvious hole in the digital data strategies of most health care organizations. Survey after survey shows, in fact, that virtually every high-profile group in the United States is missing some of the most important pieces of data of all.

Information about quality outcomes in healthcare, it turns out, is rarely to be found in the data stores of even the most apparently accomplished organizations. While many of these are chock full of data points concerning virtually every other conceivable health-related fact, very few of them include information about patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes.



In other industries, where competition for customers is a critical part of daily life and survival, that omission would be unthinkable. In fact, even industries that are fairly hands-off and reticent about accumulating large stores of data typically take great pains to understand how their clients feel about the products or services they receive. Time and time again, they have found that this is one of the best ways of all of ensuring that they stay true to their mission of being the best that they possibly can be.

Why hospitals need patient satisfaction data, then, should not just be obvious, it should be the kind of question the answer to which is a guiding principle. Having reliable, accessible health outcomes data is not just a way of enabling powerful approaches like population health management, it is also one of the best ways of helping to set a productive course for an entire health organization.

Wanting to be a detached and clinical as possible, many health leaders have neglected to recognize these important facts. Ultimately, however, the only successful health care is that of a personal sort, because real human beings are involved in every single health procedure and outcome. Understanding how those people respond to treatments, both subjectively and objectively, then, is at the very root of what it means to deliver effective, worthwhile health care. Coming to accept this can be a challenge for some organizations, but it is one very much worth accepting.