Business Intelligence for Healthcare: Actionable Insights for Business Decision Makers

Business Intelligence
for the Health Care Industry:
Actionable Insights for Business Decision Makers
by Don Tapscott
Brought to you by Business Objects (an SAP company), SAP and Intel. Business Intelligence for the Health Care Industry: 1 Actionable Insights for Business Decision Makers
Executive Summary Mr. Bernhard Wieser, CIO of Schön Kliniken, a private hospital group with 12 locations in Germany, agrees: HOSPITALS FROM ACROSS the world are facing increased pressure to improve operations from multiple "On average for the last year we maintained 98 to directions. Legal requirements, an aging population in 99.9% utilization, meaning all our beds are more or many developed countries, and an ever-increasing need to less occupied by patients. Hence the number one be service-oriented are forcing hospitals to do more with priority for us is to understand who is coming in our less. Even with recent investments in information hospitals and occupying our beds, what services they technology, much of the data has not been coordinated, need and which they receive, and how long they stay. analyzed or deployed to improve operational performance. We have to provide the best care possible while What is needed is a new generation of business managing the bottom-line." intelligence (BI) tools and applications designed with the In this paper, we discuss how advances in business health care sector in mind, capable of integrating cross- intelligence are enabling improved decision making in the and inter-departmental processes and information. The health care industry across three broad axes: simplicity resulting intelligence would enable hospitals to make and relevance, agility and integration. better operating decisions, increase transparency, change business processes, and drive better overall performance. Specifically, new interfaces and approaches to Those that learn to effectively harness the information technology and business intelligence are empowering a generated by their IT systems will enjoy substantial wider array of staff and decision makers by providing productivity improvements. relevant data within a user- and context-friendly interface. Through various hardware solutions and/or Web interfaces, data can now be delivered beyond Value Proposition administrative offices and directly to clinical staff who can 1.0 make the most use of it. In turn, this access to increasingly Countries around the globe may have different approaches "real-time" data provides a finer level of insight into data, in funding their health care systems, but one thing remains resulting in more precise decision making and clear and constant: it is in everyone's best interest to have optimization. Further, by integrating BI within business them operate as efficiently as possible. And hospitals are a processes and distributing it more widely, decisions can be classic example of an operational excellence challenge: made at the point of impact. But to ensure that the data human and capital resource intensive, high levels of can be trusted, a solid data foundation must first be variation per case, and low levels of "automation" established. (inversely, a high level of human intervention) require a proactive management, where relevant data can improve decision making. Margins per case, capacity utilization, 2.0 Simplicity and Relevance bed occupancy, referral patterns and more can help hospitals and clinic managers do more with less. Effective business intelligence is both simple and relevant: simple to allow a large number of users to access the Mr. François Lemoyne knows the situation well. He is information through an interactive, user-friendly the CFO and CIO of l'Hôpital Sacré-Cour of Montreal, interface-regardless of the type or source of Canada: information-and relevant so that users can employ it to "Outside of specific budget or funding initiatives, the address immediate issues and support business decisions. majority of management's efforts are invested in the optimal management of the resources at hand. Our 2.1 Simplicity main objective is, with the resources we have The end goal of business intelligence is to empower available, to provide the general population with as decisions "at the point of impact"-in other words, the high of a quality of service as possible. In order to person who is the most adept at making a decision should deliver on that goal, it's clea... [download for more]