To succeed as a specialized hospital in the highly competitive Netherlands healthcare market, Ignatius Hospital needed facts—about its patient population, staffing demands, and the risks of specific procedures. Although it routinely collected details about patients and procedures, it lacked a way to analyze data and extract information required for insight into its future needs.
For multipurpose statistical analyses, Ignatius selected PASW Statistics. Today, the hospital not only collects data but uses results of analyses for predicting risks and better allocating resources. What’s more, the flexibility of PASW Statistics makes the software suitable for use throughout the hospital.
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Like other healthcare institutions, Ignatius Hospital tracks its numbers—635 beds, 80,000 outpatients per year, 18,500 inpatients per year, and 1,800 employees. But at this large Dutch hospital, the numbers are only the beginning. It's what's behind the numbers that counts.
For more than five years, Niels Kamst, director of the medical administration department, and his policy assistants, Alain Leeggangers and Mariska de Jongh, have used PASW Statistics to answer questions critical to the hospital’s future, including: Who are our patients? How long do they stay in the hospital? How many beds will we need in the future? In the short run and the long run, how many staff do we need? What are the chances of complications with specific medical treatments?
Initially, upper management showed little interest in their efforts. "At first, they did not even ask to see the results of our analyses," said Kamst. But in recent years, as Ignatius has evolved into a specialist hospital, management has adopted a more market-oriented approach. Because it must now compare the hospital’s performance with those of other institutions, it desperately needs detailed information about what’s happening behind the scenes.
Kamst and his staff originally selected PASW Statistics because the policy assistants and trainees already knew the program and because the software has low start-up costs. "You can install PASW Statistics on your computer and start working right away," Kamst said. "With PASW Statistics, we could really mine our data warehouse. When the management team estimated the extra value of this information, the benefits of PASW Statistics were obvious."
The software has proven itself. PASW Statistics gives you some important benefits. The starting costs are very low. Getting started is a snap. And retrieving data from different sources and mining them does not take a lot of time because PASW Statistics has no problems whatsoever with extensive files.
— Niels Kamst
Director
Department of Medical Administration
In an ongoing study of patients within the hospital's artificial kidney center, Leeggangers extracts data from the hospital information system and performs analysis with PASW Statistics. The goal is to predict the duration of medical treatment, the number of treatments required in a period of time, and the duration of treatment for each patient. With this data, the hospital can determine the number of employees required to staff the kidney center over the short term (one month) and the long term (next year). Given the scarcity of specialist personnel, long-term planning is critical for recruitment.
In 1997, after installation of an information system in the cardiac surgery department, one of the surgeons started collecting data about his patients during their hospital stay. According to de Jongh, "He asked me whether I would have any use for these data. Of course, I had to give some structure to the data first." The analytical model she selected is based on an American research project. She maintains an active file of cardiac data, which is updated continually by the surgeons with information on new patients. For every patient admitted for coronary artery bypass surgery, de Jongh creates a risk factor assessment based on certain patient characteristics (for example, diabetes). She then tests this assessment against empirical facts. The outcome score gives the patient a statistically sound yardstick thatdescribes the chances of mortality or possible complications during the medical treatment.
Ignatius plans to adopt a single statistical analysis and information system for use throughout the hospital. Even though not every department has the same needs or same statistical knowledge as medical administration, Kamst recommends the selection of PASW Statistics as Ignatius' analytical standard. "Selecting PASW Statistics is a logical solution," says Kamst. "The software has proven itself. PASW Statistics gives you some important benefits. The starting costs are very low. Getting started is a snap. And retrieving data from different sources and mining them does not take a lot of time because PASW Statistics has no problems whatsoever with extensive files."
In the coming years, Kamst believes an increasing number of hospitals will follow Ignatius' example and apply sophisticated analytical techniques to get a better understanding of their data.
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