Despite such remarkable progress, many critical aspects of health management remain complicated – which leads to serious mistakes. Fortunately, strategic application of healthcare business intelligence (HBI) – for innovation, new procedures, knowledge transfer, data sharing, etc. – minimizes mistakes while enabling extraordinary enhancements.

Most healthcare providers have four goals: They need to provide optimum care delivery; develop a reliable financial baseline; employ rigorous business planning; and increase market share. Healthcare managers who make daily decisions to achieve these goals rely on all forms of patient- and healthcare-related data, which must be managed and analyzed. Enter HBI. In fact, “pay-for-performance” initiatives, increasingly popular among health authorities, have generated significant HBI investment. With HBI, they provide quality, inexpensive healthcare while maintaining business differentiation.

Integrated information

Here’s how it works: To improve quality, support service standards, reduce costs or develop competitive strategies, large, geographically dispersed health systems need information about how care is delivered across multiple fronts. These systems collate raw data from various sources, and then BI solutions turn it into meaningful, controlled and safe information. The systems also enable data integration, application of sophisticated analytics and accurate information delivery.

 Data Integration – Relevant data sources are usually dispersed across hospitals, requiring a formal, enterprise-oriented approach to data integration. Ad hoc approaches lack the scale and flexibility for analytics.

Analytics – CEOs need analytics to identify the most preferred service offerings in each of a group’s hospitals. CFOs need breakdowns on resource consumption. Data warehouses that accommodate both are incredibly valuable.

Information Delivery – Relevant reports are essential. Hartford Hospital, for example, creates more than 150 email reports, which administrators and financial analysts access easily. The hospital incorporates other data into its system – including a time-tracking and scheduling application and clinical data. The centralized information center – which features single sign-on—allows people to access all the data they need, clinical or financial.

Benefits of HBI

HBI enables healthcare organizations to gather their data in a single repository and compare it across systems, dramatically improving care. Additionally, strategic, mature HBI solutions are easily implemented and relieve significant manual data collection burdens.

Technically, faster data gathering and meaningful analytical report production facilitate decision support and operational management, while seamless integration and pre-data integration efforts cleanse data. From a business perspective, executives gain more than information; they receive analytical reports based on data gathered from different sources.

Moreover, outcome analytics can monitor disease protocols, and additional data scrutiny can determine which protocols meet safety and efficiency parameters. Further, performance and quality improve by segregating main subject areas into key performance indicators (KPIs).

Most importantly, patients benefit. They receive more accurate diagnoses, and prescription drug- and hospital care-related errors are reduced considerably. HBI enables them to enjoy longer, healthier, disease-free lives.