How ORA Orthopedics Uses Benchmarking Reports to Improve

How ORA Orthopedics Utilizes Benchmarking Reports to Improve its Practice

Patient-reported outcome (PRO) data is becoming increasingly important in the new era of value-based care. In fact, PROs are often referred to as the gold standard of outcomes, and CODE Technology couldn’t agree more. We’re a PRO vendor, singularly focused on collecting, reporting, and benchmarking PRO data as a service. So naturally, we love to emphasize the importance of PROs.

ORA Orthopedics, a surgery group with seven locations in Iowa and Illinois along the Mississippi River, is just one of the many organizations collecting PROs with CODE that is having great success with its program.

“We are fortunate enough to have a group of 25 surgeons that are forward-thinking, that are looking ahead to the future, and looking at how we need to adapt to remain sustainable for the next 30 years,” notes ORA’s Clinical Administrator, Joe Holmbo.

One way ORA is future-proofing its practice is through data. Using CODE’s patient-reported outcome service, ORA is building a robust internal orthopedic registry. This data is then used to facilitate shared decision-making between the physician and patient, as well as fuel various organizational initiatives.

“From a practice perspective, we want to give the patient the best possible experience and the best possible outcome. How do you track that? How do you know how good of a surgeon you are, or how good of a practice you are, if you’re not getting data and comparing it?” Holmbo adds.

Benchmarking

Finding these answers can’t be done without collecting PROs, so that’s exactly what ORA does. They collect a ton of PRO data — 16,000 procedures have been added to the CODE orthopedic registry since implementation in December 2015. ORA also administers outcome surveys to non-operative patients as a patient satisfaction tool.

“We market that we are top-notch surgeons, that we’re the best around, but you really don’t know that unless you’re comparing it,” notes Holmbo. Therefore, ORA takes full advantage of CODE’s comprehensive benchmarking reports. It shares its data with its 25 surgeons on a quarterly basis.

“It’s really spurred discussions among the surgeons. They look at their scores and say, ‘Wow, I’m really low. Why am I lower compared to Dr. A?’ Meanwhile, Dr. B says, ‘Well, how come my surgical outcomes on this procedure are lower? What are you doing that I’m not?’ Then they start looking at the quality of healthcare, and the quality of the procedures they’re doing. These reports allow them to have that conversation and share tips and tricks with each other.”

Contract Negotiations and Reimbursements

CODE’s benchmarking reports also help ORA with contract negotiations and reimbursements. “If you have good outcomes and you are proficient at what you do, there’s going to be a higher reimbursement down the line for those surgeons. We can use that data to provide a value to both the insurance payers and also to patients.”

About CODE Technology

In the past, any type of data collection has been a huge pain and incredibly time-consuming. Not true with CODE Technology, as ORA will attest to.

CODE Technology is a PRO vendor that focuses on collecting, reporting, and benchmarking PRO data as a service. The data CODE collects enables practices to have benchmarking reports, which assists with research, improves patient care, and gives leverage in negotiations with payers.

CODE administers surveys and handles all data collection for you as a service, 100% outside of the office. That means you won’t need to hire additional employees to administer or score surveys – we do it all for you. “For us to be able to collect PROs without adding any additional staff, it’s well worth the investment that we’ve made with CODE,” notes Holmbo.