Cost reduction and containment in healthcare requires providers to look at patient consumption of medical resources at a granular level, said Scott Mark, PharmD, vice president of product management, implementation and customer management for Craneware Healthcare Intelligence.
Dr. Mark recommended viewing the patient visit-ID.
"This allows for patient consumption to be grouped and compared in a way that identifies and highlights variances that can be compared to best practices," said Dr. Mark. "This level of granularity is essential to driving process improvement, as it removes emotion from the equation and allows health providers to focus on the data and objectivity of the clinical decision that is driving the cost variance."
By focusing on these high-variation areas, he said healthcare providers may be precise with cost-cutting efforts.
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