The Importance of Technology with Test Utilization Reporting

Patient care is complex and laboratory data may be the most involved healthcare component from both a general perspective (e.g., annual health screenings, monitoring of chronic medical conditions) and more specific perspectives (e.g., specialist and inpatient or emergency room visits). Healthcare analytics are comprised of this complex data that arises from patient care across multiple sources – facilities, providers, information systems – and hc1’s PrecisionDx Advisor technology platform can ensure laboratory stewardship data is consolidated, current, accurate, and accessible. 

Whether your organization is just starting a lab stewardship program or has an established program in place, PrecisionDx Advisor is an invaluable resource to support the analysis of test utilization throughout your organization and present data from numerous sources accurately in a single platform. 

Analyzing laboratory test utilization

PrecisionDx Advisor is a test utilization-specific tool that has evolved with hc1’s client needs. Supporting several categories of test overutilization, such as repetitive, repeat normal, and high cost/low diagnostic value, the guideline configuration not only categorizes data but supports one-to-many analyses. An example is when a single test, such as a Basic Metabolic Panel, may be considered ‘repetitive’ if ordered more than once per day but also a ‘repeat normal’ if the current and previous results (within a time window) were all normal. 

Guidelines may be complex, based on Provider or Location Specialty, Patient Class (IP, OP, ER, etc.), gender, age, frequency, etc. or as straight-forward as a test being labeled ‘high cost’. Test utilization scenarios may vary based not only on the maturity of a laboratory stewardship program but also on organization-specific initiatives, such as decreasing the use of respiratory multiplex PCR panels – which are often not reimbursed – or working across the organization with other departments to detect hospital-acquired infections in a more timely manner.

Automated lab stewardship guidelines

PrecisionDx Advisor is based on customer-defined testing guidelines (the “logic”) to assess the test ordering protocols that are tracked within the hc1 data. At the highest level of summarization, the process is:

1. Test utilization guidelines are defined using test codes from one or multiple information systems.
2. Data from external sources (LISs, EMRs, etc.) is ingested (via HL7, JSON, secure file drop, etc.) into the hc1 standard data model using hc1’s InterConnect engine.
3. If a test code used in a test utilization guideline(s) is detected by hc1 InterConnect during ingestion, the test order or result record is stored in a temporary polling queue. 
4. The hc1 platform executes the polling queue every 15 minutes to determine if an exception is present based on the applicable guideline(s), indicating a test utilization “failure.” 
5. Standard dashboards present the exception data by both volume and financial impact. 
6. If a customer has hc1 Insights Builder, the dashboards may be customized or they can create new dashboards for their organization. 
7. And, with technology options such as single sign-on (SSO), the platform is easy to access and ‘always up’ for the audience. 

Setting the groundwork for artificial intelligence

Having laboratory data consolidated into a single platform also sets the groundwork for AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) scenarios with your laboratory data. This could extend beyond test utilization, enabling the laboratory to forecast lab volume and staffing needs and determine impacts to the laboratory based on initiatives such as establishing or growing a laboratory outreach service. 

The key to successful lab stewardship programs

Technology – in this case, PrecisionDx Advisor – is a key component in successful laboratory stewardship programs because it removes cross-department dependencies, lessens human error, and supports committee members reviewing data at any time/on their own terms. Using a platform that is system-agnostic and can receive, ingest, and present accurate, consolidated data from multiple sources removes common challenges with laboratory or healthcare system analytics in ensuring you are a) capturing all of the data consistently, and b) presenting the data accurately and in real time for the audience.

To learn more about how hc1’s Lab Stewardship solution combines unrivaled expertise, proven frameworks, and comprehensive analytics to help healthcare systems optimize lab testing, watch our recent webinar on-demand.