Data on the Edge
Every day, hospitals are being asked to provide a higher level of care for higher-acuity patients with fewer resources. In an era of rising complexity, benchmarking, shared learning and forecasting are essential practices to turn data into actionable insights. Through these efforts, health systems can identify opportunities and improve access, quality and efficiency, as well as anticipate change and mitigate risks across the System of CARE (clinical alignment and resource effectiveness).
America’s Essential Hospitals (AEH) members (“essential hospitals”) represent nearly 400 organizations delivering high-quality care to all people, including those facing social and financial barriers. AEH makes up approximately 5% of the nation’s hospitals but provides 28% of charity care nationally. These hospitals lead in advancing access and innovation, training the healthcare workforce and driving improvements in outcomes—while sharing a safety net mission to care for all people.
Analysis of 123 essential hospitals in the Vizient Clinical Data Base (CDB) shows that essential hospitals consistently deliver efficient, high-quality care despite treating more complex patients. All analyses include only continuously reporting hospitals for both the AEH cohort and total CDB hospitals, covering the time frame from Q4 2021 to Q2 2025.
The communities AEH hospitals serve were analyzed using the Vizient Vulnerability Index (VVI). The VVI assesses nine social drivers of health and the overall vulnerability index for each census tract and ZIP code across the U.S., which are calculated as standard deviations from the national mean. The nine drivers of health are economics, housing, education, social environment, neighborhood resources, public safety, healthcare access, transportation and clean environment. Any score greater than1 is considered an area of “high vulnerability.”
Alyssa Harris and Jen Gof
To speak with one of our experts about performance improvement, service line strategy and System of CARE strategy, email membercenter@vizientinc.com.
As patient acuity and resource needs continue to rise, essential hospitals demonstrate that improved outcomes for vulnerable populations can advance through data-driven planning, coordinated care and community partnerships. Sustaining this progress will require stronger post-acute access, behavioral health integration and workforce alignment to ensure all patient populations receive high-quality care across the System of CARE. Key lessons include:
Vizient Intelligence is a diverse team of subject matter experts and thought leaders who represent specialties ranging from clinical service lines to enterprise strategy. The team develops strategy-specific content in the form of editorial reports, including the Data on the Edge series, and perspective-based analytics, such as the Impact of Change® forecast.
