Health Care Services: Distinctive Approach Cleary & Co. applies state-of-the-art analytic methods prevalent in business consulting to solve tricky and obstinate health care challenges using its proprietary methodology: “Health Outcome Evaluator” (HOE) Identify Root Causes The HOE method focuses first on drivers of disparate health care outcomes. While there are often contextual factors that are correlated with health disparities/outcomes (such as societal or economic conditions), this methodology focuses on drivers for which there is a clear and practical linkage between patient characteristics or behaviors and health outcomes: these are more readily addressable near term with targeted, cost effective initiatives. Cleary & Co. supplements conventional controlled studies with detailed data mining on large scale patient databases. ‘Heat maps’ of geographic health outcome disparities can be helpful (but do not provide insights). Develop Program and Mobilize Program Design. This is focused on highest impact initiatives, prioritized based on both the severity of a particular driver of health outcome disparities, and the incidence of these drivers. Conventional health care program design often overemphasizes severe but low-incidence health factors. While these factors can (and should) be addressed with highly targeted solutions, these solutions rarely ‘move the needle’ on the overall health problem being addressed because so few patients are affected. Best Practices Identification. Against each of these high impact initiatives, the Cleary & Co. performs a comprehensive scan of solutions adopted across the U.S. (and in some cases internationally) to identify ready-made solutions with proven results (where available). These solutions are then modified as needed to address local conditions. Targeting/Prioritization Addressable populations for various initiatives are prioritized or risk-segmented to ensure that resources (which are often limited) are directed at the segments where the solutions can have the highest impact. Since the HOE root cause method focuses on identifiable patient characteristics and behaviors, the risk segmentation is readily applicable. In addition, where geographic considerations are important (such as proximity of health care services), heat map methods are used to prioritize and focus initiatives. Evaluate Health Care Providers and Share Best Practices Performance of health care providers (e.g. hospitals, individual practitioners) with respect to health care outcomes can vary substantially, though it is often difficult to evaluate performance since there are often differences in the profile of patients across institutions. The HOE methodology can evaluate performance adjusting for the mix/characteristics of patients. Once risk adjusted evaluations are performed, the practices of ‘best performers’ can be examined, codified and promulgated (and suitable reimbursement/incentive structures put in place). Click here for Client Examples