How Big Data Is Helping To Lower Medical Liability Risks

Practice economics are impacted by medical liability risks. Patient quality and efficiency is key to the healthcare industry’s success, but a lack of proper staffing has led to a fast-paced environment where medical liability remains a concern.

Data collection is being utilized as a means to help lower these risks, increase profits, predict outcomes, offer better outcomes and even reduce waste. Big data can help make hospitals and care centers more efficient than before.

Private sector businesses are growing rapidly, with 200 businesses founded between 2010 and 2016 that were all designed to provide:

• Analyzation of new data
• Collection of new data
• Usage of new data

There are already some groups that are using these new solutions to cut back on medical malpractice claims and improve the outcome for patients.

SE Healthcare’s Physician Empowerment Suite

Physician Empowerment Suite is a cloud-based solution that goes beyond the basics of big data. What the solution does is analyze deep data to help provide actionable insight into solutions that can help the user better understand a team’s effectiveness and the patient experience.

Three platforms are in place: Patient Experience, Clinical Effectiveness and Reimbursement Effectiveness.

What the tools do is use the data collected by a physician and their team to help avoid legal battles due to medical malpractice. Data can be used to help a team understand the mistakes they’re making, offer ways to avoid common mistakes and provide an atmosphere that is more patient-centric.

Areas of concern are addressed through big data, allowing teams to take immediate action and solve potential issues that have yet to materialize. This can prevent more complex and difficult health issues from surfacing, because the teams will have managed them before they even begin.

Big data is further used to improve customer experience and help boost the reputation of healthcare providers. Platforms are being developed that will suggest key changes that can be made to a practice to create an environment that is better for patients.

Providers can better understand the experience of their patients when big data is available and properly analyzed. It helps them to get a better grasp on the patient’s history, on the conditions that are bothering them, and even how likely they are to experience certain future ailments. Rather than making healthcare less personal, big data can add a more personal touch to medical care. And, of course, big data can help reduce the risk of malpractice and potentially save more lives.

Closed Malpractice Case Data to Provide a Learning Experience

A robust learning experience is being created using the data from closed medical malpractice claims. The data is being mined and analyzed to do a few things:

• Save lives
• Reduce costs
• Increase patient safety
• Reduce errors

Data that is being used comes from previous mistakes that have led to costly medical malpractice claims. The goal is to use the data to find ways to improve patient outcome by looking at mistakes in the past.

Government assistance is provided through a database called the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). Congress created the NPDB to provide a point of healthcare data that includes malpractice lawsuit information.

As more data becomes digital and openly available, it will allow robust solutions to be offered that will promote big data as a viable means of reducing medical liability risks. Protecting anonymity will be crucial to allow for these solutions to flourish, and this is something that all parties agree will improve quality of care.

Insurers, health care professionals, and lawmakers are urging the use of big data, when used properly, to improve patient outcomes and lower costs of lawsuits.