Artificial
intelligence and analytics use are growing modestly among health systems, but
many still struggle with data-related challenges and a lack of financial resources.
By Jessica
Kent
December 11, 2019
- Twenty-two percent of healthcare organizations use a software platform
that provides artificial intelligence capability, according to a recent report from HealthLeaders Media.
This is an
eight-point increase from 2017, the organization noted, indicating that AI use
is steadily rising among health systems.
Thirty-one percent
said they plan to have AI capability within the next three years, and 63
percent said their organizations plan to increase their investments in
analytics technologies within the next three years.
HealthLeaders
surveyed 128 individuals representing different healthcare provider
organizations, aiming to measure AI and analytics use across the healthcare
ecosystem.
Providers see a wide
range of applications for AI, with 81 percent of respondents saying their
organizations currently or plan to apply the technology to clinical data, 72
percent to financial data, and 59 percent to patient data.
Organizations also
see potential in analytics capabilities. Sixty-three percent of respondents
said they plan to increase their investments in analytics, while 35 percent
said their investments would stay the same. Just two percent of respondents
said their investments would decrease.
Health systems are
also leveraging analytics strategies to extract insights from various sources
of information. The report found that 78 percent of respondents said they use
descriptive analytics for financial data, while 81 percent said they leverage
descriptive analytics for their clinical data.
However, fewer
participants use predictive capabilities for financial and clinical data
analytics. Sixty-four percent said they apply predictive analytics to their financial
data and 52 percent reported using predictive capabilities for clinical data.
Analytics investments
have led to a strong return on investment for organizations: Forty-one percent
describe their organizations’ return on investment on analytics as acceptable,
while 30 percent describe analytics ROI as good and 14 percent describe it as
very good.
Just 16 percent of
respondents describe their analytics ROI as poor or very poor.
When asked about the
most significant challenges in performing analytics, most respondents named
issues involving human skills and staffing.
Forty-eight percent
of participants see the need for timely analysis as the top challenge in
performing analytics over the next three years. Forty-six percent said
overcoming insufficient analytics skills would be the most challenging, while
thirty-seven percent view insufficient funding as their biggest issue.
In addition to
revealing staff education and training issues, these barriers also reflect
investment challenges, researchers noted.
“Two of the top three
tactical challenges are either indirectly or directly related to financial
resources,” the report stated.
“For example, the
solution to solving the problem of insufficient skills in analytics is
investment in training or adding analytics staff, and insufficient funding in
light of other priorities needs no explanation.”
These findings mirror
statements from a February 2019 Kaufman Hall report, which said that financial
executives should expand the scope of their responsibilities and investments in
order to keep up with new technologies.
“Given the demands of
the changing business environment, healthcare CFOs nationwide should be
critically examining the role they and their finance teams play in their
organizations. A singular focus on directing or managing financial operations
and the related control/monitoring function is not sufficient going forward,”
the report concluded.
“Finance executives
must be integral to the development, execution, and monitoring of the
organization’s vision and strategy, and be armed with the full breadth of data
and analytics required for performance management in healthcare.”
Organizations also
cited data-related challenges in performing analytics. Half of respondents said
integrating internal clinical and financial data is a top challenge, and 46
percent said integrating external clinical and financial data is a major
barrier.
The third most-cited
challenge was improving EHR interoperability, with 43
percent of respondents naming this as a major barrier to building analytics
capabilities.
Looking ahead, 62
percent of respondents said that the most promising area of analytics
development would be clinical best practices, while 54 percent cited real-time
delivery of actionable information as the most promising area of analytics.
This indicates that
most health systems are interested in using analytics technologies to enhance
care delivery and outcomes. Thirty-nine percent of participants also named
improved quality of care as the primary goal they would expect to achieve
through integrating financial and clinical data.
In September 2019, a survey from HIMSS Analytics and
Dimensional Insight yielded similar results, showing that the future of the
industry will focus on quality rather than quantity.
“As healthcare
organizations move to value-based payment models, they are finding that
focusing on clinical metrics, including readmission rates, infection control,
and patient outcome improvements is critical for success,” George Dealy,
vice president of healthcare solutions at Dimensional Insight, said at the
time.
“Analytics provides
tremendous insight into these areas and can benefit healthcare organizations
that are navigating this transition.”
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