Why Predictive Analytics Are Critical to Better Care Delivery

When it comes to providing high-quality medical care, clinicians can’t outsource human touch and personal intuition.

The evolution of predictive analytics, however, is giving providers a helping hand to do their jobs even better. Deep access to pools of patient data can be leveraged to adjust care delivery models, improve patient outcomes, and strengthen a hospital’s bottom line.

Delivered at the point of care, detailed insights can be lifesaving. Penn Medicine, for example, uses a program that gleans data from a patient’s electronic health record and a machine-learning algorithm to develop a prognosis score upon arrival.

Beyond saving lives, the effort can reduce operating costs. Nearly two-thirds of executives forecast that predictive analytics will save their systems 15 percent or more over the next five years, the Society of Actuaries survey found.