Service line analytics is one of the latest buzzwords in health systems today. As with any trend, it can be difficult to separate the facts from the hype.
Here’s a helpful guide to what service line analytics involves and how it can help guide service line development, strategic planning, and resource allocation.
Defining Service Line Analytics
Service line analytics is the process of analyzing performance drivers for a specific healthcare service line to benchmark areas of high and low potential within a market.
Service line analysis begins by creating a consumer profile to define which consumers are most likely to use that specific service at your health system. Unlike a clinical analysis that analyzes likelihoods based on medical history, consumer profiling exercises view patients as “consumers” and look for common demographic and lifestyle characteristics.
But service line analytics don’t end with a consumer profile. The next step is to layer in other performance drivers for that specific service line structure, including the existing supply of medical providers and estimated demand based on use rates. These factors are combined and weighted in a service line model that benchmarks the potential for a service line across a defined market.
Applying Service Line Analytics
Service line analytics can be a helpful tool for healthcare executives seeking to define a system-wide strategy, particularly when identifying investment opportunities and improving resource allocation.
Identify Opportunities for New Investment
By visualizing concentrations of potential consumers using the consumer profile and conducting a potential analysis of your operating area using the service line model, you can identify pockets of unmet demand. Consider adding new facilities in these areas to grow your market share.
Improve Resource Allocation and Asset Utilization
Are you offering the right healthcare services at the right facilities? Score your facility network with a service line model to identify where you should add the service line and where you should remove it. Reallocate resources from facilities with low demand to facilities with high demand to improve efficiency and return on investment.
The Bottom Line
Managing a health system is a complex task. By studying service line potential using analytics, you can optimize your service offerings and make more informed investment decisions.
Learn more about optimizing your investments in our blog post, 5 Pitfalls of Healthcare Real Estate Investment.