By Karen O'Driscoll
Vice President, Post-Acute Solutions
No matter what a SNF’s goals are, data has the potential to help them meet and exceed those goals. However, the operative word here is ‘potential.’ Many SNFs are fully aware they need to collect and leverage targeted data to drive decision making. But when it comes to executing on that, there may be issues they’re unaware of.
We can see the real-world implications of all of this from a recent case study conducted on Cambridge Health Alliance, a SNF and hospital network based out of Boston, Massachusetts.
Some of the Issues Cambridge Health Alliance Faced
Like many SNF networks, Cambridge Health Alliance knew there were opportunities to leverage data to make impactful changes and drive meaningful gains. However, the company faced many of the same issues other SNFs deal with when broaching this topic.
Here’s a cursory snapshot of some of those issues:
- Having to rely on anecdotal experiences to make clinical decisions
- Not being able to accurately measure nursing home KPIs
- Lack of benchmark data to compare and contrast performance among nursing homes
- Insufficient metrics to enable management of at-risk populations
How Cambridge Health Alliance Met the Challenge
Thankfully, the remedy for these challenges proved to be fairly straightforward for Cambridge Health Alliance. The spoiler of the story is that through strong leadership and a great partnership, Cambridge was able to realize the full potential that data brings to the table. Some of the benefits the team experienced include:
Increased synergy and information sharing between facilities
- Reduction in readmission rates
- Identification of successes and areas to improve
- The ability to benchmark the effectiveness of changes
The story is compelling, inspiring, and surprisingly simple. If you’d like to learn more about how Cambridge Health Alliance took control of data and the exact steps the team utilized to get there, we’d encourage you to read the full Cambridge Health Alliance case study now.
About the Author

Karen O'Driscoll
Vice President, Post-Acute Solutions
Karen has had over 25 years of experience of revenue optimization for Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation organizations specializing in Business Development, Case Management, Program Development, Preferred Provider Network Development and Care Transitions. Quality and evidenced based programs Karen has created and implemented include: Meds2Beds program to provide medication to nursing home residents prior to discharge to decrease recidivism and Telemedicine for Skilled Nursing Centers to prevent readmissions. Karen is currently the VP of Post Acute Solutions with PointRight, Inc. and is responsible for Business Development in the Health Systems/Hospital/ACO/Payer segment of the business.