University of Mississippi Medical Center Analytics 50 Submission

Business Challenge

To achieve continual quality and process improvement while ensuring financial stability, the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s (UMMC) goal was to become a learning health system with the ability to generate a clinical evidence base and determine areas with opportunities for improvement.

Analytics Solution

UMMC created a Center for Informatics and Analytics to reinvent itself as a knowledge-driven health system, utilizing predictive and descriptive analytics and data governance. The center used a combination of outsourcing and homegrown analytics focused on use cases rather than comprehensive data management. Its logical data warehouse model combines internal data lake structure with external Hadoop high-processing computing and machine learning.

To assist with its initiatives, UMMC used an honest broker team—a group of people specially trained in security and privacy with the responsibility of ensuring compliance with all data releases and data aggregations. Using analytics, UMMC:

• Looked into multiple systems to see whether physicians are answering queries to determine if benchmarks were being met to ensure an accurate case mix index
• Used its billing and coding systems to identify additional opportunities to turn information into data visualizations, allowing the center to work directly with UMMC physicians to improve patient care and revenue cycle processes
• Focused on physician engagement and making more robust use of problem lists, using predictive analytics in the treatment of pressure ulcers and a descriptive analytics approach around treatment and preventable complications

Impact

• Improved documentation, leading to enhanced CMI, reduced accounts receivables and several million dollars in return
• $500,000-$1 million savings for the institution due to decreased pressure ulcers
• More than $3 in return for every $1 spent on the Center for Informatics and Analytics activities