Using data mining/data repository methods to identify marketing opportunities in health care

Using data mining techniques, opportunities for improving continuity of care, improving patient satisfaction, and enhancing system revenue were discovered at Sinai Health System, Chicago by analyzing the compliance of patients in prenatal care and subsequent delivery at the hospital with which their primary care clinic was affiliated. This led to the development of a telephone survey used to determine why patients who were receiving prenatal care at the health system’s affiliated primary care sites chose to deliver their baby at other non‐affiliated hospitals. The results of the survey are being used by management and marketing in order to improve processes in ways that would minimize the lost business.