HCA Healthcare is unifying the way it collects data from patients to monitor consultant performance, track post-procedure progress and deliver better outcomes.
Cliff Bucknall, chief medical officer at HCA Healthcare, (pictured) explained the firm faced issues with its Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) used to measure a patient’s health status or health-related quality of life at a single point in time.
Speaking at Laing Buisson’s Private Acute Healthcare Conference, Bucknall told delegates HCA was using two types of PROM for different types of patient with different questions and methodology for each.
Consequently, it became clear the hospital group needed to simplify its PROMs using a single digital platform across specialities while consultant performance will also be tracked.
“The whole idea of this is once the surgery is booked, the PROM is sent to the patient, the patient completes it,” Bucknall said.
“This is where it gets interesting, this is the bit we’re really excited about. I would put to you that prior to coming into this room most of you will have thought the purpose of doing PROMs is to ensure the next person in line knows how well it went.
“Now what if instead of that you thought to yourself when filling in the form this is a methodology to track my personal performance and if it’s not right, give an opportunity to the clinical team to put it right, to correct it?
“So, we set up the trajectory we expect this person to have after their heart or knee replacement. What do we expect them to be able to do by these points? If they don’t achieve that then we need to do something to correct that and get the inflight change – this simple idea is where we’re headed.
“So, we are able to use that as part of our reasoning to the patient as to why they should fill in the PROM. Yes, they’re doing it altruistically for the person who’s coming behind them but actually they’re doing it for their own tracking.”