Once upon a time, behavioral healthcare facilities were islands – relatively separate from the rest of the healthcare landscape and not seeking out healthcare data analytics to inform strategy.

That has changed.

With continued consolidation across markets and steady movement toward value-based care, behavioral healthcare organizations are recognizing the need for the right data to make smart decisions about their organization’s strategy and growth. Additionally, competition within behavioral health is increasing and building relationships with acute care hospitals is essential.

Using Hospital Discharge Data for Behavioral Health

We are working with more and more behavioral health organizations – both single state and multi-state facilities – who are needing reliable hospital discharge data to support strategic planning and develop outreach plans for increasing market share.

Data that behavioral health facilities are interested in obtaining from IntelliClient™:

• Specific, behavioral health diagnosis and procedure codes that show volume of psychiatric admissions for treatment.

• Identifying the source of admission – physician referral and emergency department are the main sources.
• Locating the zip codes where psychiatric patients come from.
• Identifying discharge status – Went home? Long-term care? Behavioral health facility?

• Pinpointing specific discharging physicians to develop relationships with.

Here’s how behavioral health facilities are using this data for strategy and marketing:

• Building relationships with hospitals with high psychiatric patient volume for direct referrals and admissions.
• Creating and nurturing relationships with attending physicians who are discharging to behavioral health facilities.
• Understanding market opportunities for establishing or acquiring a behavioral health facility located near an acute care hospital that has high psychiatric admissions.
• Using the demographic data provided by IntelliClient™ along with the hospital discharge data to investigate and map the dynamics of a given market.
• The demographic data provides important information related to a given market such as age, gender, ethnicity, income and a 5-year population growth projection for each of these categories.

Behavioral health is looking for ways to grow its business outside of the traditional ways as this market becomes more competitive. Decision-making informed by data will help behavioral health organizations know the acute care hospitals and physicians best positioned to grow relationships with. Data will also help to inform long-term and costly decisions such as new facilities and acquisitions.