Predictive analytics: The best treatment for a range of health care areas - SESCAM speeds up its health care management and research with IBM

IBM Software Public health Business Analytics SESCAM speeds up its health care management and research with IBM Predictive analytics: The best treatment for a range of health care areas Managing health care resources requires enormous quantities of data Overview to be handled from different areas. On the one hand, there is data regarding the management of all of the departments and patients in Challenge the hospitals and health centers; and, on the other, and in particular They needed a tool that would help in public organizations, support for research departments, which need improve health care services as well as reliable IT tools to effectively register statistics across the different to manage the large amount of data they handle. levels of their work. IBM is the leading supplier of statistical software to Spain’s health care sector, and its solutions have proved to be of vital Solution assistance to the main health care institutions. IBM’s SPSS Predictive Analytics enables the client to supervise the operation of different areas and control the weak The client: SESCAM points of hospital services. It also The SESCAM (Castile-La Mancha Health Service) is the organization provides statistical control over charged with public health services in the Castile-La Mancha region. It processes. has a staff of 6,000 doctors, 31 pharmacists, 80 dentists and 7,000 nurses and provides health coverage to more than two million people. Each year it conducts 13 million medical appointments, more than a million in the pediatric sector, more than eight million nurse appointments, 180,000 hospitalizations 1.2 million hospital stays and 200,000 surgical operations. In addition to its extensive health care program, this region features a large number of clinical research centers, some of which are reference institutions in their field, such as the National Hospital for Paraplegics, based in Toledo. Within the region, research projects are also being conducted focusing on improving diagnosis and treatment, the general quality of lymphatic cancer service, cardiovascular illnesses, Alzheimer’s, conditions affecting the digestive system and neural regeneration, among others. The continuous growth of these activities has required the SESCAM to strengthen its research centers’ statistical capacity. IBM Software Public health Business Analytics The challenge: improving statistical and Advantages: management support The SESCAM’s main challenge was having in place an appropriate • Easy management of all of the statistical tool for its scientific research that could also contribute to information contained in the CMDP the management of all of its hospitals and health centers to detect • Identification of potential problems in possible inefficiencies, and to improve the end service provided to health care, facilitating their resolution clients. and improving the quality of care in hospitals The solution: IBM SPSS Statistics • Improving the cure rate for illnesses The SESCAM acquired several IBM SPSS Statistics licenses for use • Improving prognoses and treatment in the management and research departments. The first were used specifically to monitor the operation of hospital service and identify weak points where they arise. In their research departments, SESCAM turned to IBM SPSS Statistics to achieve better statistical control over their processes and strengthen their effectiveness in initiatives requiring significant monitoring and management of data and predictive capacity. This is important because in this area some of Spanish science’s reference lines of research are being conducted, which have ramifications for other projects at national and international levels. The results: effective management and better focused research Using the tools provided by IBM SPSS very quickly bore tangible results. In the health care management field, one of the most important aspects is identifying inefficiencies across hospital processes. The SESCAM’s administrative department uses Statistics solutions to manage all of the information contained in the Conjunto Mínimo de Datos Básicos (Minimum Set of Basic Data), which includes demographic data (age, sex, residence) and registers the main diagnosis for admission in hospital, risk factors and possible complications, some relevant diagnosis techniques and therapies. This enables them to identify and compare potential problems affecting the organization’s health care provision, facilitating their resolution and improving the quality of hospital care. 2 IBM Software Public health Business Analytics In the research field, the National Hospital for Paraplegics required a robust statistical tool for the development of more ergonomic wheelchairs and other innovative devices to assist their patients in their daily lives. That is why it turned to IBM SPSS tools. The objective of Ciudad Real Hospital’s Nutritional Illness Unit is to improve the cure rate for illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia, which are estimated to affect three percent of the population. Only fifty percent patients are cured. The goal is to monitor sufferers over the long term and record the possible variables so as to improve prognoses and treatment. IBM SPSS predictive analytics tool was of fundamental help to them in implementing this monitoring. For its part, Albacete’s Primary Care Management has a research group focused on studying the sensory capacity loss related to aging.