We dare anybody to find an area of healthcare faster paced, stressed, difficult and anxiety-provoking than an emergency department (ED) these days. Within the ED there are constant and never-ending inputs and outputs with more process ingredients being added to the “cooking pot.” To prevent this ED pressure cooker from blowing its lid, emergency department […]

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If you were tasked with creating an analytics team in a healthcare provider organization, where would you start? How would you structure it, staff it, run it and grow it? What activities would be in scope for the team, and what would be out of scope? And perhaps most importantly, how would you demonstrate value […]

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Healthcare providers measure everything and collect massive amounts of data. So much data on so many topics is collected that often these organizations do not know where to focus their analytics efforts. In some cases, they simply respond to demands for information from regulators, payers, purchasers and public reporting publishers. In reactive mode, their analytics […]

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Large vs. Small Patient Panels? An entire analytical application with significant clinical, financial and operational value can be built around one question: What is the ideal patient panel size? The reason is simple. Determining the size, shape and composition of patient panels involves a large number of business questions that cross an equally large number […]

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Healthcare quality metrics come in three flavors. First, there are the compliance measures, which are designed to prevent bad or ineffective behaviors. HIPAA is an example of this type of measure, as are ISO and Joint Commission compliance measures. A wide number of organizations, both governmental and private, set these standards and enforce them. The […]

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The American Nurses Association announced that it opened up its database of nursing and quality measures called National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators ® (NDNQI ®) for research purposes. More details can be found at https://www.nursingquality.org/ The amount of data for clinical improvement purposes is significant: 11 years of data submitted quarterly 1500 hospitals represented […]

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Cooperatives Being Pushed as an Alternative to a Government Plan There are a number of business questions that these healthcare cooperatives will need to answer to survive and succeed. And each of these questions will require some form of business intelligence. Some examples: Getting capital and making wise investment decisions. They will likely be receiving […]

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Performance measurement is growing up in healthcare. And this will drive the need for more sophisticated business intelligence for providers, payers, regulators, quality improvement groups and patients. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a study on thirty-day readmission rates among the nation’s hospitals. The basis for this announcement is three years […]

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Software developers often use the phrase “elegant code” to describe programming that is simple, clean, handles a wide variety of situations with ease and perhaps most importantly, hasobviously apparent value to anyone who reads it. This quote from the book The Art of UnixProgramming by Eric Steven Raymond does a very good job of describing […]

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One of your clinics is not like the others. It is different. It is better. It is a beacon. One of your clinics is more profitable than the others. Revenue is higher and so are reimbursement rates. Costs are lower. Receivables are turned faster and claims denials are fewer. One of your clinics is brighter, […]

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Business intelligence projects can stall for a number of reasons including lack of sponsorship, lack of communication, lack of focus and lack of direction, just to name a few. The results of such a stall are fairly obvious – loss of return on investment, loss of reputation, loss of employment. The meter keeps running. This […]

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A popular place for healthcare providers to begin developing business intelligence applications is with service line analysis. After all, most of the organization is already organized into service lines. Doctors and most other clinicians are hired into and practice in specialties. Facilities, equipment, supplies and medications are lined up this way as well. Insurance coverage […]

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This article originally appeared on the BeyeNETWORK.”Business Intelligence Applications for Specialty Healthcare Organizations Once upon a time, there was a chain of department stores that was losing money. The CEO wanted to know if any department was making a profit. No, every department was losing money. So, the CEO wanted to know which department was […]

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Somewhere in the distant past, somebody coined the term “economic climate,” likening the state of the economy to natural weather patterns. We have come to think and talk about the economy using this metaphor in phrases like clouds on the horizon, sunny day predictions, financial doldrums and bellwether stocks and companies. We act as if […]

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Not all organizations have an analytical culture, but such a culture is essential to achieving success with business intelligence. Because business intelligence capabilities are not so much installed as they are grown, they need a fertile, analytically rich environment. This is true in healthcare organizations as it is with businesses of any type. Consider this […]

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The value of the electronic health record (EHR) has been taking a beating in the press lately. A sampling of news stories chronicling the difficulty of successfully getting a return on investment from EHR adoption include: •The top five reasons for EHR failure, •A study on the rise in failure and de-installation of EHRs, •The […]

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Walk down the halls of any hospital, clinic, long-term care facility or home-health agency and you are likely to see a large number of run charts decorating the walls. These charts, as I am sure you are aware, are used to measure an almost endless array of clinical, service, administrative and financial indicators. The data […]

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To understand the future direction of healthcare business intelligence, one first needs to look at three things: •Today’s pressing healthcare business and healthcare policy issues, •Emerging trends in business intelligence capabilities, and •Potential healthcare analytical applications that are currently being overlooked. The first area (i.e., business and policy issues) is essential because today’s business problems […]

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One can scarcely pick up a newspaper, listen to newscasts, scan the bookshelves or even talk with neighbors without reading or hearing something about the subject of healthcare today. Healthcare organizations of all types are under tremendous pressure to improve performance and the quality of the care they provide. At the same time, healthcare organizations […]

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Get your organization started moving down the path of business intelligence now. Don’t let perfection be your enemy. This was the message – loud and clear – at Business Intelligence and Analytics: Unleashing Data to Drive Quality & Financial Performance, a two-day conference put on by The Center for Business Innovation. The group obviously meant […]

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Our family doctor cements my loyalty as a patient every time I go to see him. He accomplishes this with one simple action combined with two sophisticated uses of patient intelligence. The simple action is to put notes into my care record that indicate what satisfies me. Currently, two of the notes in my record […]

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Do you know how much of your patient revenue is going overseas? Medical tourism is quickly growing into a major force that can put a significant dent in many healthcare providers’ revenue streams. As the name implies, medical tourism means traveling to another country (or to a lesser degree, another state) for medical care. The […]

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Early in my career, I had a job interview where the manager asked one question – what makes for a good business decision? At that moment, the phone rang and the manager took the call, so I had a minute or two to think about my answer. I decided to dispense with a sophisticated answer […]

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With the increased pressure to perform, to do it more cost-effectively and to comply with the ever-growing number of regulatory and public reporting requirements, it is easy for healthcare organizations to get caught up in the problems of the day. It is equally easy for the people in those organizations to become mired in the […]

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The migration of patient point-of-care off the traditional medical campus represents a growing trend in the United States. Over the next few years, off-campus healthcare delivery points will experience a steep upward curve as clinics move into retail locations, corporate office locations, schools, community centers and so forth in increasing numbers. One fast-growing trend that […]

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Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) are forming at a remarkably rapid rate across the country. Two years ago, there were fewer than a dozen of these organizations in the formative stages. A year ago, there were approximately 110 RHIOs. At last count, there were just over 200. What is a RHIO? As the name implies, […]

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One of the most promising management strategies in healthcare today is Lean. You may have heard of Lean strategy, or you may actually be involved in implementing a Lean initiative in your organization. The reasons for pursuing a Lean strategy are obvious once you understand its value. Healthcare organizations, especially providers, are under immense pressure […]

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Finding New Ways to Reach Your Patients If you place a rubber ball on the floor and set an anvil on top of it, two things will happen. First, tremendous pressure and heat will build up in the core, changing its shape, size, density and even its composition. With enough weight, it could collapse entirely. […]

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Business intelligence holds the promise of helping healthcare organizations solve many of the big challenges they face today, such as increased demand for information on quality, performance, outcomes and cost. The key to getting this information and using it to solve these problems is making sure that people are using the data. As I learned […]

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Healthcare organizations are facing a number of enormous challenges today. Purchasers, payers, patients and governmental agencies are calling for better performance, higher quality, improved patient safety and more transparency, all at a lower cost and with greater efficiency. In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and train enough physicians and other staff members, […]

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Businesses in all industries commonly have trouble collecting on sales, but claims denials represent a special challenge for healthcare providers. It is estimated that between one and three percent of a typical healthcare organization’s revenue is lost due to denied claims. For a $100 million hospital, this could mean losing up to $3 million a […]

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Organizations just beginning the business intelligence journey often face the same fundamental question of where to begin. While this is the question for organizations in all industries, it is especially true right now in healthcare. There is currently intense pressure on organizations across the industry—for providers, payers, purchasers and suppliers—to perform better, faster and cheaper. […]

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Cost, cost, cost! It seems that the only thing we hear about in healthcare today is cost. In fact, healthcare costs are rising far faster than the economy as a whole. Everyone was stunned when General Motors reported that they pay more for their workers’ healthcare than for the steel used in the production of […]

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Big issues, big trends and big numbers characterize the healthcare industry today. Consider some of these critical issues and trends that we as a nation, and particularly in the healthcare industry, are currently facing: •Waste in healthcare estimated to be as much as 30%. That’s $600 billion dollars in a $1.8 trillion dollar industry. •An […]

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Unquestionably, patient safety has always been a matter of the utmost concern in healthcare. What has changed over the past few years is the degree to which clinical organizations are being scrutinized for their patient safety records, and the public level of demand for improvement. Along with cost, efficiency and availability, patient safety has become […]

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Rising costs. Medical errors. Waste and inefficiencies. Inconsistent payment policies and inequalities. The news is plastered daily with negative messages about healthcare organizations, and it is only going to get worse. Clinical healthcare organizations in particular are on the public relations defensive in terms of quality, costs, patient safety, etc. What makes this situation even […]

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Recently, I attended the Digital Healthcare Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Last year, the theme of the conference was simple – measure everything! Measure patients and their outcomes, processes and process quality, providers and their productivity. Measure for value. Measure for opportunity. Measure for protection. This year, the theme of the conference was just as simple […]

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Research puts the evidence in evidence-based medicine. Business intelligence puts the evidence in evidence-based business decisions. One of the best business intelligence applications for healthcare organizations is the patient registry repository. This one application provides clinical value, as well as business value to these organizations. But it is generally overlooked when it comes to providing […]

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It is estimated that up to 30 percent or $510 billion of the $1.7 trillion U.S. healthcare industry is wasted effort and cost. The single best way to reduce this waste is to make sure the right activities are performed by the right people, at the right times and for the right reasons. The largest […]

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Predictive analytics is the hot topic in business intelligence right now, and for good reason. Since the first commercial transaction took place thousands of years ago, sellers have wanted to predict who will buy, what they will buy, when and how much. Significant amounts of time, energy and money are devoted annually to making these […]

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In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) popularized the phrase “priority conditions” in its report “Crossing the Quality Chasm.” Priority conditions in this context refers to the chronic clinical states experienced by the greatest number of patients on a national basis. The fifteen conditions listed in the report account for more than 70 percent of […]

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Acceptance of new systems is always difficult, regardless of what industry you are in. Systems require investments of time and money to build, and only pay for themselves if they are used. This is especially true with business intelligence applications because the concepts are not usually a normal part of most users workdays, and yet […]

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Pay-for-performance is a relatively simple concept, and one of the oldest concepts in most industries. Set up a scale for measuring performance of a provider of goods or services, and then a corresponding scale of pay to match each level of performance. The complexity of clinical healthcare has traditionally made measuring such performance very difficult. […]

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Patient registries have been in use in the healthcare field for decades, beginning with the creation of the Tumor Registry almost 40 years ago. Their use has traditionally been for clinical purposes of tracking patients and providing information to support contact with those patients. Recently, however, clinical organizations have discovered the immense potential of registries […]

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For a clinician, it seems as if virtually every player in the healthcare field is demanding information on performance, quality, safety, efficiency, effectiveness and of course, costs. Patients are armed with clinical performance information from the web and they want more from their physicians. Purchasers want statistics on what providers did, how they did it, […]

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