Data Aggregation Platform Makes Clinical Integration Easy

Most people reading this commentary will be familiar with the extreme pressure our medical delivery system is under. With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act ACA, the rapid consolidation is pressuring the system to change. No single component of the system is under more pressure to change than physicians. Physicians are simultaneously being pressured to improve documentation, improve outcomes, improve the patient experience, and at the same time decrease costs — and they are struggling.

In medicine, most of this change has been thrust upon what is basically a cottage industry without the resources to create the processes and the methodologies needed to run an increasingly complex business model. The key for most industries is automation and data. However, answers must be squeezed from the data, much like diamonds are created from coal.

A small company arising out of the pressure of this change is Arrowlytics, which arose from the intense work required to merge two large orthopedic practices in North Carolina about 8 years ago. The leaders of these two practices realized that to not only survive, but to thrive, they must use the pressure of the market place to create their own diamond: a computer platform that can not only take in virtually any sort of data, but also use this data to create decision supporting reports in order to improve the financial aspects of practice. This system also allowed the physicians and clinical staff to return to the primary reason they entered health care: patient care.

The product of this effort became a topic of discussion at orthopedic meetings and soon other orthopedic practices started to ask if they could use it. This led to the formation of Arrowlytics in 2014; headquartered in Charlotte and lead by CEO Steve Hendrick, and COO, Richelle Cox.

The Arrowlytic platform takes data from practice management systems, scheduling systems, human resources data, payroll sources, patient satisfaction surveys, patient reported outcome surveys, EHRs, etc. The system then places this into a cloud based data warehouse where it can be cut and polished, just like the diamond, into something that not only catches the eye, but also is functional.

It creates key performance indicators, specific to the efficient practice of orthopedics that are monitored on a regular basis for continuous improvement in practice metrics. This process is not something that is intuitive to most practices.  One Arrowlytic client was spending 1000 man-hours each year just to create spreadsheets and cross-reference charts, something this platform can do in a fraction of the time.

Arrowlytics platform is not only of interest to individual orthopedic practices but also groups of practices who are forming what are called clinically integrated networks; networks of similar type practices that are the foundation to a value based delivery system. Clinical integration is made up of numerous practices, all with different data systems and sources need a way to aggregate data.  Arrowlytics can take and comb this data and place it into an integrated data warehouse so aggregate analysis can be done. 

This has allowed these clinical integrated networks to negotiate with payers and succeed in the new world of bundled payments .The Arrowlytic platform allows practices to be more profitable, and at the same time improve care.