What is data abstraction?
Abstraction is the process of reviewing large or small data sets or documents for information that will be needed in the future for decision making. The crux of the problem is having domain knowledge that allows one to accurately and swiftly sift through the important from the unimportant. When completed in accurate fashion, the result of data abstraction is the compression of a large amount of information to its essence without loss of meaning or usefulness. Abstraction is used to manage complexity so that great decisions can be made quickly and with confidence.
In healthcare, problems that arise from a single error is far different than that of a researcher or a real estate title abstractor. In healthcare, a single data error could easily have a negative impact on a patient’s care outcome and consequently, on the reputation of the provider organization.
For managers of healthcare abstraction workflows, it is important to take proactive steps to increase data quality, minimize the chance of treatment errors and if possible speed up the data collection process and cut costs all at the same time.
It’s a tall order but those objectives can be obtained. The key is to rely less on humans and more on technology to control the workflow. Software is able to parse paragraphs of text for the essence of the data. This means it can be done:
- Very quickly
- Reliably
- Tirelessly
Headaches caused by employee turnover, interviews, training and managing are reduced.
Abstraction workflows that rely only on humans is error prone (and error rates aren’t often calculated). With software automation, management reports are available at the push of a button. These management tools include productivity reports by employees or hours spent on the workflow by employees and many others. Instead of lying awake at night worrying about what errors a new employee is making, the manager can review accuracy reports and determine if there really is something to worry about.
Automation makes workflow management much easier when volumes can be predicted, resources appropriately scheduled, and problems quickly discovered and addressed.
Extract Systems can help the process with an automated abstraction tool. Our goal is to automate the data abstraction process in order to reduce manual data entry time, input errors, and the time it takes medical staff to file through lab results in the media/documents tab in order to find the information they truly need for diagnosis/review. That time should be used for doctors and clinical staff to focus on patient care… and we understand that. We want to take the busy work off of your hands so you can focus on things that truly matter—providing exceptional patient care.
To learn more about how our automated abstraction tool can help, click the link below to request a personalized demonstration. Someone is standing by to assist you.
We can’t wait to discover how our automated workflows can help!
About the Author: David Rasmussen
With 30 years’ experience leading software companies, David is driven by the challenge to consistently find groundbreaking ways to solve customer problems and finds it rewarding to hit the customer’s target and create a great team, build a solid infrastructure, and emerge with a strong value proposition.