Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

Adapting Your Growth Strategy to Meet the Needs of Aging and Racially and Ethnically Diverse Patient Populations 

By Michael Shipley
Senior Product Manager

Tags: Blog, physician referral, Stratasan, strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic planning, data analytics, data-driven decisions, data strategy, growth planning, health care, health data, health strategist, health strategy, health system, health systems, healthcare, healthcare budget, healthcare planning, healthcare strategic growth, healthcare strategic planning, healthcare strategy, healthcare systems, hospital, hospital planning, hospital strategic planning, hospital strategy, hospitals, Inpatient Statistics, markeitng, Market Share, nashville, Physicians, Population Health Management, referral data, referrals, healthcare market share, marketing research, patient population, service area growth, service line growth, strategic growth plan, physician outreach strategy, Hospital growth plan, healthcare leadership, healthcare market data, hospital growth, physician patterns, patient experience, customer experience, physician strategy, diversity, data confidence, outmigration, physician referral leakage, outpatient, HOPD, 2022, Patient Origin, Syntellis, healthcare annual planning

By Michael Shipley
Senior Product Manager

Tags: Blog, Stratasan, strategic planning, strategy, data, data analysis, data analytics, data-driven decisions, data strategy, growth, health, health care, health strategist, health strategy, healthcare, healthcare data, healthcare planning, healthcare strategic growth, healthcare strategic planning, healthcare systems, hospital, Market Share, healthcare growth, data analyst, all-payer claims data, decision-driven decisions, data aggregation, payers, Gist

How Stratasan’s ZIP5 Patient Origin Modeling Can Help You Identify Trends and Opportunities

By Michael Shipley, Morgan Atkins

Stratasan recently began offering a new capability: ZIP5 analysis of our All-Payer Claims Database. This capability helps health systems and hospitals better assess critical business performance in areas such as patient outmigration and physician referral tracking.

Stratasan assigns a ZIP5 to patient IDs in order to provide an enhanced level of granularity. The ZIP5 assignment is for All-Payer Claims 837 submit data since that is the data being rolled up to the ZIP. This modeling is based on the patient’s observed healthcare utilization from All-Payer Claims Data (APCD). In this blog, we’ll explore our methodology for ZIP5 modeling, but first, let’s explain why this level of insight is useful.

Tags: data analytics, apcd, zip5

Key Learnings from our Conversations with Hospital Associations

By Megan Reeves 

Given our history serving the nation's top healthcare organizations, assisting them in processing data and using it to make growth decisions, we have unparalleled insight into the data needs of hospitals of all shapes and sizes. We know what matters to end-users of the data collection process and we’re able to apply our knowledge to the process as a whole to make it easier, more efficient, and with an output that is better for strategic decision making.  

In an effort to sharpen our understanding of state association needs and the state data aggregation process, we spent time connecting with associations across the nation. We wanted to learn more about the challenges they’re facing, and how we can better support their work. 

What we heard in these conversations reinforced our long-standing understanding that state data is complex, and aggregation is challenging, with requirements differing by state. 

The following are learnings we gleaned from these discussions, which covered a multitude of topics including partnerships, data types, release schedules, challenges facing members, and hopes for the future of hospital associations. We hope the insights gathered here highlight the hard work already being done, and some key opportunities for optimizing data in ways that would benefit both associations and their members.

Tags: data analytics, healthcare data analytics, hospital associations, data aggregation

Evaluating 2020 Data—Is it Useful or Not?

By Lee Ann Lambdin 

When 2020 budgets and strategic plans were set in the fall of 2019, no one could have imagined that by the following March, they’d be useless. Plans created for 2021 may be no better off, as they were established in the midst of a pandemic. How can strategic planners start again? What data and analytics should be used when 2020 trending is out of the question?

This is the first post of a series where we’ll discuss how strategic planners can regain focus, make sense of the data collected during COVID-19, and approach planning for the future. In this post, we’ll discuss how to approach 2020 data differently. In the next two posts, we’ll offer some actionable advice. 

Let’s dive in and talk about how to reconcile 2020 data and use it effectively in strategic planning.

Tags: data analytics, data strategy, healthcare data analytics, COVID-19, 2020

A Look At the Healthiest and Unhealthiest ZIPs in the US

By Gavin Chance 

Even more so than in the past, health and wellness are top of mind as we begin a new year. Americans everywhere are setting New Year’s resolutions and hoping for a healthier, happier 2021.

It can be beneficial to understand the past state of our health as we collectively look to the future and make plans for improvement. This infographic shares statistics and trends about our health as a country, focusing on the following information from 2018:

• The average amount spent on health

• The average number of visits to the doctor

• The number of cigarettes smoked

• The average amount spent on prescription drugs

Tags: data visualization, data analytics, healthcare demographics, infographic

Uncover the Fundamental Truths Your All-Payer Claims Data Should Deliver

By Morgan Atkins and Daniel Dreaden

Not all all-payer claims data (APCD) is created equally. Depending on the data aggregator and clearinghouse(s) used, the APCD offered by any given analytics company can vary significantly.

When choosing a partner to provide your APCD, it can be difficult to discern what’s most important. Many incentives offered may sound nice to have, but could also be distractions to keep you from noticing more critical features that are lacking. As you consider your options, keep these three questions in mind:

• Does this APCD provide patient cohort tracking?
• Will you be able to access submit and remit data?
• Is there transparency into what is being modeled and how?

Let's discuss in more detail each of these questions and why it’s critical to have these clearly answered before signing on with an APCD provider.

Tags: data analytics, healthcare data, healthcare analytics partner, healthcare data analytics, all-payer claims data, apcd

Tracking Care Patterns by Cancer Site

By Morgan Atkins and April Adams

Earlier this year, members of the Stratasan team conducted a study to determine if treatment care patterns differ for oncology patients by cancer site. The hypothesis was that the most common treatment path for cancer patients is to first seek surgical treatment, then medical, then radiological. Patients were grouped by their order of transition from surgical, medical, and radiological procedures. 

Below you will find the results of this study.

Tags: data analytics, all-payer claims data, apcd, oncology

How to Be More Insightful and Strategic with Data-Based Findings

By Lee Ann Lambdin and Forrest Rich

At the close of each quarter, strategic planners in the healthcare industry have the opportunity to present quarterly findings and progress updates to executive teams and upper-level management. These quarterly meetings often provide critical insight necessary for continued advancement in planned growth-related projects. They could also be the ideal time to present new ideas.

These meetings present an opportunity to share key findings to leadership that can change the course of how a hospital’s planning, marketing, and business development departments will function in the weeks and months to come. Therefore, it is critical that you're prepared to tell the most compelling story possible with the data you have on-hand.

Tags: data visualization, data analytics, data-driven decisions, infographic

by Lee Ann Lambdin

I hired a great analyst a few years ago. She was skilled with database programs, understood the complexities of the healthcare market, and had previously been a medical records coder—in short, she was very talented. The longer she was in her position, the more our state data was reported accurately and on a reliable schedule. It was a huge win for me and my team!

Recognizing her capabilities, I asked if she could start running "quarterly standard reports" that present key findings which could influence how our planning, marketing, and business development departments would function and what we would focus on in the weeks and months to come. These quarterly updates would be high-level summaries of our market landscape and would cover everything from our hospital’s market share, trended volume, competitor positions, product lines, payor mix, patient migration patterns and more. 

 

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic planners, strategic planning, data analysis, data analytics, healthcare, healthcare data, healthcare strategic growth, healthcare analytics partner, healthcare trends