Our previous blog posts on value-based care focused on the need for healthcare analytics, and gave examples of how some hospitals are using analytics with great success. It is clear from those examples that the changing landscape means now is the right time for healthcare organizations to use analytics to give greater insights into their data and make better decisions that improve outcomes. This will be critical to succeed in the value-based world.
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But in order to make that change, you need to decide on the right healthcare analytics solution. Here are 3 things your solution must have so your organization can gain the right level of insights.
1. Ability to view data in a consistent manner
Analytics is capable of bringing data from different sources together to produce information hospitals can use to improve their business. But many times within healthcare organizations, different areas measure this data in different ways. For example, metrics for a “patient day” might be measured in a number of ways across different departments. You want to make sure your analytics system can reconcile these metrics before the numbers are crunched. This will ensure the end-result data is consistent.
2. Ability to dive down into detail
A fancy dashboard with great graphics can be a better tool than what you currently have. But it should be more than that. You want to make sure you have a healthcare analytics solution that allows you to dive deeper into the data to get detailed answers around certain pieces of data that lead to further questions. Many healthcare analytics solutions have pre-defined drill paths that take you down only a couple of levels and don’t allow you to move around as you wish. You don’t want to limit your view of the data.
3. All-inclusive solution for simplicity
Some healthcare analytics solutions providers claim to do it all, but they end up relying on a number of third-party solutions. They might require, for instance, a separate data visualization solution in order to view the data they produce. You want to make sure your organization’s solution provider is all-inclusive. This provides you with more simplicity and a single point-of-contact should any questions come up.
The best healthcare analytics providers will work with you to understand your organization’s individual challenges and goals. The advice above should be on your radar, but it should really be first and foremost on the vendor’s mind as well, as part of its customized analytics program geared to meet your organization’s goals. For something that can yield such important results for a healthcare organization, you should demand nothing but the best from your healthcare analytics solution.
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Kathy started her career in television news writing and producing. She then worked at a public relations agency and as a freelance writer before joining Dimensional Insight in 2013.
Kathy has presented at several events in both healthcare and wine & spirits, including the Healthcare Innovation Summit, the Healthcare IT Marketing & PR Conference (HITMC), and the WSWA Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) Conference. Kathy is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and a member of Women of the Vine & Spirits.
She is also host of the Smarter Healthcare Podcast (www.smarthcpodcast.com) and is a member of the Forbes Communications Council.
Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Boston University.
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