How UNC Health and RLDatix Are Using AI and Integrated Systems to Strengthen a Culture of Safety

Healthcare organizations generate enormous amounts of safety and operational data—but much of it remains fragmented across disconnected systems.

In our recent interview with Rachini Moosavi, Chief Analytics Officer at UNC Health, and August Calhoun, President of North America at RLDatix, a global provider of safety, workforce, and data solutions for healthcare organizations, we discussed how AI systems and integrated solutions support a culture of safety at provider organizations.

The Challenge of Fragmented Data in Healthcare

In our discussion, Calhoun dives into some of the important statistics from a recent CHIME Survey conducted with RLDatix about how health care institutions struggle with integration and bringing together the fragmented data environments that exist today. The survey findings highlight a growing frustration among healthcare leaders with disconnected systems and the operational inefficiencies they create. Leaders shared that modernization is no longer optional, interoperability is a baseline expectation, and tool sprawl is slowing teams down.

“First, tool sprawl is a problem with 76% of respondents said managing point solutions is complex and problematic. 85% said that the financial constraints from doing that keep them from investing in more things,” August Calhoun.

How AI Is Transforming Safety Reporting

Calhoun then shared some of the ways that RLDatix is helping providers with these challenges. Starting last August, the company has offered an AI system for collecting safety incidents. Instead of requiring staff to complete lengthy reporting forms, the system can capture unstructured input from voice or text and automatically generate the structured information needed for incident reporting. The system can tell the reporter what data is missing, and can automatically categorize incidents and score risk factors, helping organizations identify patterns and prioritize investigations more effectively. Customers are very happy with it.

“Our AI solution for safety reporting takes free form text or voice into text… It’s more efficient, with 75% shorter time to enter an incident, and it’s more effective, we get higher quality data and better harm scoring,” August Calhoun.

Why Integrated Data Matters for Safety

RLDatix’s work in AI helped realize the importance of a platform approach that combines and provides access to all the data possessed by each institution. By connecting safety, workforce, compliance, and operational data on a single platform, healthcare organizations can gain deeper insights and increasingly apply advanced analytics and AI tools to identify risk trends and improve decision-making.

Ultimately, Calhoun says, you need integrated data in order to not only to report safety incidents but to figure out how they happen. Customers are asking, “How can we avoid these same things happening again,” and are pushing to improve policies, education, and other processes.

“Everything we do [at RLDatix] is focused on elevating the standard of care and creating safer care. And we do that through creating stronger systems based on data that allow our customers to put things together and act on continuous improvement,” August Calhoun.

Lessons from UNC Health

Moosavi also stresses the importance of integrating data from many different sources. You have to harmonize their definitions so they can be “knitted together” and the analytics can make accurate comparisons. She points out that COVID-19 showed that the presence of data allows better decisions.

“There is a need for all of our institutions to think about portfolio rationalization, how can we simplify to make it as easy as possible to create the right streaming of information in the cleanest way,” Rachini Moosavi.

Moosavi says that AI changes how we approach all aspects of work, including regulation and reporting. Regulators should also look at ways to use AI to get the data they need, instead of imposing extra reporting requirements on people. We may need only a subset of current functions to achieve the same effects.

Find The Right Partner

As both Moosavi and Calhoun emphasize, improving healthcare safety requires more than simply collecting incident reports. Organizations must connect data across systems, apply modern analytics and AI tools, and build processes that allow teams to learn from every event.

Watch our full interview with UNC Health and RLDatix to learn how healthcare leaders are using AI and integrated data systems to strengthen the culture of safety across their organizations.

Learn more about UNC Health: https://www.unchealth.org/home

Learn more about RLDatix: https://www.rldatix.com/en-nam/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

And for an exclusive look at our top stories, subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube.

Tell us what you think. Contact us here or on Twitter at @hcitoday. And if you’re interested in advertising with us, check out our various advertising packages and request our Media Kit.

RLDatix is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

Healthcare organizations generate enormous amounts of safety and operational data—but much of it remains fragmented across disconnected systems.

In our recent interview with Rachini Moosavi, Chief Analytics Officer at UNC Health, and August Calhoun, President of North America at RLDatix, a global provider of safety, workforce, and data solutions for healthcare organizations, we discussed how AI systems and integrated solutions support a culture of safety at provider organizations.

The Challenge of Fragmented Data in Healthcare

In our discussion, Calhoun dives into some of the important statistics from a recent CHIME Survey conducted with RLDatix about how health care institutions struggle with integration and bringing together the fragmented data environments that exist today. The survey findings highlight a growing frustration among healthcare leaders with disconnected systems and the operational inefficiencies they create. Leaders shared that modernization is no longer optional, interoperability is a baseline expectation, and tool sprawl is slowing teams down.

“First, tool sprawl is a problem with 76% of respondents said managing point solutions is complex and problematic. 85% said that the financial constraints from doing that keep them from investing in more things,” August Calhoun.

How AI Is Transforming Safety Reporting

Calhoun then shared some of the ways that RLDatix is helping providers with these challenges. Starting last August, the company has offered an AI system for collecting safety incidents. Instead of requiring staff to complete lengthy reporting forms, the system can capture unstructured input from voice or text and automatically generate the structured information needed for incident reporting. The system can tell the reporter what data is missing, and can automatically categorize incidents and score risk factors, helping organizations identify patterns and prioritize investigations more effectively. Customers are very happy with it.

“Our AI solution for safety reporting takes free form text or voice into text… It’s more efficient, with 75% shorter time to enter an incident, and it’s more effective, we get higher quality data and better harm scoring,” August Calhoun.

Why Integrated Data Matters for Safety

RLDatix’s work in AI helped realize the importance of a platform approach that combines and provides access to all the data possessed by each institution. By connecting safety, workforce, compliance, and operational data on a single platform, healthcare organizations can gain deeper insights and increasingly apply advanced analytics and AI tools to identify risk trends and improve decision-making.

Ultimately, Calhoun says, you need integrated data in order to not only to report safety incidents but to figure out how they happen. Customers are asking, “How can we avoid these same things happening again,” and are pushing to improve policies, education, and other processes.

“Everything we do [at RLDatix] is focused on elevating the standard of care and creating safer care. And we do that through creating stronger systems based on data that allow our customers to put things together and act on continuous improvement,” August Calhoun.

Lessons from UNC Health

Moosavi also stresses the importance of integrating data from many different sources. You have to harmonize their definitions so they can be “knitted together” and the analytics can make accurate comparisons. She points out that COVID-19 showed that the presence of data allows better decisions.

“There is a need for all of our institutions to think about portfolio rationalization, how can we simplify to make it as easy as possible to create the right streaming of information in the cleanest way,” Rachini Moosavi.

Moosavi says that AI changes how we approach all aspects of work, including regulation and reporting. Regulators should also look at ways to use AI to get the data they need, instead of imposing extra reporting requirements on people. We may need only a subset of current functions to achieve the same effects.

Find The Right Partner

As both Moosavi and Calhoun emphasize, improving healthcare safety requires more than simply collecting incident reports. Organizations must connect data across systems, apply modern analytics and AI tools, and build processes that allow teams to learn from every event.

Watch our full interview with UNC Health and RLDatix to learn how healthcare leaders are using AI and integrated data systems to strengthen the culture of safety across their organizations.

Learn more about UNC Health: https://www.unchealth.org/home

Learn more about RLDatix: https://www.rldatix.com/en-nam/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

And for an exclusive look at our top stories, subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube.

Tell us what you think. Contact us here or on Twitter at @hcitoday. And if you’re interested in advertising with us, check out our various advertising packages and request our Media Kit.

RLDatix is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.