BI Driving Operational Efficiency In Healthcare

Balancing increased pressure to perform with cost-effectiveness and regulatory compliance is challenging for most healthcare organisations.

The nature of critical patient care makes it difficult to engage staff in details of budget constraints, performance measurement and improvement initiatives.

Business intelligence analytical applications need to be closely aligned to the healthcare network of providers. Rather than approaching this from a technical perspective, it pays to approach this from an operational perspective.

Compelling BI Mission

Business Intelligence requires an solution that answers the business questions at the right level of the organization so people can make decisions. Business questions align to the overall mission statement and should be approached from the patient perspective. The product of a business intelligence application is information to answer these questions.

Decisions must be acted upon to provide true value to the organisation. Defining the downstream actions enabled by BI output information is essential to truly understanding what information is required of an analytical product.

In healthcare, this may include:

• Identifying and prioritizing target populations to provide health services.
• Identifying providers of the required help, the required supplies and the required equipment.
• Gaining financial resources to provide the required services
• Logistical considerations such as scheduling staff, moving the providers and materials to the right place at the right time, etc.
• Compliance issues in the nations and states you are entering, the nations/states you are pulling providers from, the nations/states you are crossing, etc.

Performance measurement such as:

• The impact made
• The cost-effectiveness of the health benefit provided
• The cost and efficiency of the delivery of providers, supplies and materials

Return on Investment

Using data to target the most needy sectors of the population generally fails to provide much in the way of commercial returns. Getting payback on a business intelligence application in healthcare is generally gained through operational efficiencies

Some potential returns on our investment include:

• Increased donations
• Increased achievement of a non-financial mission
• Increased engagement of patients and healthcare providers
• Cumulative growth impact of efforts, such as in support groups for chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer and asthma.
• Information on trends on the impact of the health initiatives, patterns in the provision of health services, and efficiency in the operational aspects of initiatives.

Next: Retail-Based Health Clinics

Back To Top