When a health system's MRI goes down, patients are frustrated and the health system loses revenue. But too often, problems aren't known until the equipment breaks. However, in today's digitally connected world, it is possible to ingest equipment data, perform analytics and proactively maintain equipment before it breaks.
During a June Becker's Hospital Review webinar sponsored by Glassbeam, Bradd Busick, senior vice president and chief information officer at MultiCare Health System, and Puneet Pandit, CEO and co-founder of Glassbeam, discussed how data and analytics can improve equipment management.
Four key takeaways were:
- Historically, managing equipment in healthcare has been done reactively, without good data. Health systems rely on a tremendous amount of equipment. This includes patient imaging equipment, surgery equipment, patient monitoring equipment, lab and test equipment, HVAC systems and more. If equipment breaks, it affects patient care, operations, workflows and revenue. Yet health systems have managed their equipment reactively, taking action only after something breaks. This is costly and inefficient.
One reason has been that the data from various pieces of equipment has existed in silos, and there has been a lack of data standards and a lack of interoperability. There hasn't been centralization of data or good visibility of equipment-related data across the enterprise. - Using data and analytics can produce better, more proactive decisions. "Data is the new oil," Mr. Pandit said. Today's world of connected equipment results in a tremendous amount of complex data. The main types of equipment-related data are machine logs, data from patient workflows and infrastructure data. The key to deriving value from this data is pulling all the data from various endpoints into a single, unified ingestion engine. Once the data is centralized, analytics can "move it from raw data into insights," Mr. Busick said.
The two primary business cases Mr. Pandit sees from leveraging this data are: 1) increasing machine uptime and 2) increasing machine utilization across an organization's entire fleet. Through use of data and analytics, it is possible to accurately predict which equipment requires maintenance before the equipment goes down. This changes an organization's posture from reactive to proactive. It improves operations, boosts the patient experience and increases revenue. - Start by identifying the biggest bang for your buck. Mr. Pandit suggested starting on this journey by looking at where an organization can get the maximum return on investment. This is often from patient imaging equipment, such as an MRI machine. If an MRI goes down at an unplanned time, the organization disrupts patient care and loses revenue. By monitoring data and applying analytics to this high-value equipment it is possible to increase machine uptime and improve the utilization of the equipment fleet. Organizations can quickly generate a significant ROI.
- Partnership is the way to go. "Find a partner who does this for a living," Mr. Busick said. Health systems are experts at delivering healthcare, but there are companies that specialize in aggregating equipment data and turning it into insights. Unlike most health systems, companies such as Glassbeam have the focus, expertise and talent to help health systems generate value from their data. "In partnership with Glassbeam we've taken the first step toward data-driven decision-making around some of our most expensive assets," Mr. Busick said.
"If you haven't started this, you're already behind," Mr. Busick said. But it is possible to move quickly to gather data and use analytics to proactively engage, repair and mitigate risk. The results include a better patient experience and increased revenue.
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