As outcomes and quality measurements receive increasing attention in health care delivery today, University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and Reach Ventures announce the formation of Socrates Analytics, Inc., an innovative software tool that promises to empower health care decision makers to transform data into timely and actionable insights.
Hospitals and physicians are struggling to better understand resource use, cost of care and outcomes, in order to meet the demands of rising care costs. But they are limited by existing administrative and clinical databases that communicate poorly and store information in disparate systems. As a result, the full potential to synthesize this critically important data for driving change in quality and efficiency goes unrealized.
Socrates Analytics, Inc., has the ability to overcome these obstacles by providing hospital administrators with the ability to look across a number of existing data systems, capture entire episodes of care and develop unique care pathways and manage resources across the hospital. A cloud-based software program, Socrates Analytics collects, standardizes, analyzes and reports on disparate hospital billing, administrative and operating room data.
Socrates Analytics was created and developed in 2007 by Conor Delaney, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery at UH Case Medical Center, who sought to answer questions such as "What is driving costs in the operating room?" and "What factors are associated with readmissions within 30 days of discharge?".
Dr. Delaney envisioned a way to integrate disparate hospital administrative software systems to facilitate reporting on operational metrics, such as operating room use, hospital bed requirements and length-of-stay, direct and indirect costs, income, the measurement and management of outcomes, and efficiency of care. "Socrates gives hospitals the opportunity to interpret complex administrative data and view trends, outliers and variability in the process, so they can improve their efficiency and terms of care," said Dr. Delaney, who is also Professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Michael Szubski, Chief Financial Officer for UH, said, "With government reimbursement policies increasingly holding health care providers financially responsible for inefficient and inappropriate care, Socrates Analytics can create new standards for ensuring quality of care for the benefit of our patients and community. In our use of it, Socrates has helped us continually improve patient care using data-driven analysis. In addition, Socrates will be a powerful tool for advancing clinical and health services research."
Through UH's support and grants from The Cleveland Foundation and the Ohio Savings Foundation, Socrates is poised to support the UH system and other healthcare facilities.
Kendall Wouters, CEO of Reach Ventures said, "With Dr. Delaney's vision realized through the on-going support of University Hospitals and the region, Socrates will help many hospitals visualize their cost structure and make objective, evidence-based decisions to improve their operations while ensuring the highest quality of care."
About Reach Ventures
Reach Ventures is the premiere business accelerator focused on big data. The firm works with the best people to build high growth businesses in high growth sectors. It provides infrastructure, seasoned experts and access to an influential community of advisers to support big data projects and business success. For more information, please visit http://www.rea.ch/.
About University Hospitals
University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. University Hospitals Case Medical Center is the 2012 recipient of the American Hospital Association – McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety. For more information, go to www.uhhospitals.org