The Callenge of Doing New Things is to Keep Doing Them

by Karen Wolfe

The Workers’ Compensation industry is often accused of resisting change. Moreover, simple observation bears this out, such as how long it has taken the industry to address analytics. Having now put its toe in the water, the industry is still light years behind other industries in implementing analytics. What is it in the industry culture that causes resistance to change?

An opportunity can be rather simple, yet taking the necessary steps to achieve it is daunting to many. An executive was once overheard saying in response to a proposal, “It all makes sense, but we would need to change the way we do things to make it happen”. Assuming change will be daunting seems to be a widespread condition of the culture. However, adopting new methods, can be very much worth the effort.

“There are risks and costs to action, but they are far less than the long range risks of inaction” J.F. Kennedy

Small change

Still, it may not be the risk of change that is the deterrent to action, but rather the effort required. An example of a small change that could significantly impact claim cost and outcome is improving data quality. Analytics are totally dependent on data quality so if it is inaccurate or incomplete, the analytics are of less value—a poor trade.

Don’t depend on IT

One thing that makes improving data quality intimidating is that it is not an IT responsibility. Even when IT can play a part in improving data quality, it is management that must demand it. Refer to Why Poor Data Quality is Not an IT Problem.

Data quality is a management challenge. Changing data quality is a management leadership issue and a fairly simple one. Data fields must be filled completely and accurately. Duplicates must be avoided. Moreover, individuals and processes must be held accountable for quality by management.

 

Source data

Sometimes the problem of data quality is the source of the data. Bill review data may not contain all the data fields needed, for instance. Again, only management can address the problem with the vendor organization.

Sustaining change

A significant amount of the effort needed for change is not so much mobilizing the action, but sustaining the initiatives. Change directives must become an integral part of the organization’s process. Management must continually check to see that mandates are carried out and which have slipped. Performance accountability is key.

Management owns data quality

The degree to which a change initiative is successful is positively correlated with management oversight. It is not difficult, but it can be tedious. In this regard, a definition of management is:

Good management is continually making sure what you did stays done.

Initiate the change, then follow up to insure continued practice. The real challenge is to keep doing it. As for accurate and complete data, it is the only affordable and practical resource on the horizon to advance to the next levels of medical management and measureable cost control through analytics. Only management can change data quality.

Karen Wolfe is the founder and President of MedMetrics, LLC, an Internet-based Workers’ Compensation analytics company. MedMetrics offers online apps that super-charge medical management by linking analytics to operations.  karenwolfe@medmetrics.org