The healthcare industry in most countries is dealing with low revenues as well as a great lack of organization. Even in the healthcare public sector, they try to increase revenues as it allows them to buy better equipment, increase capacity and thus, obtain more income from the state.
Even If, in most of the cases it is hard to make managers, from hospitals and laboratories, understand that a Business Intelligence solution would help them lower their costs, increase revenues and help organize their structure, it is noticeable they are changing their minds and try to accept the idea that a BI solution would not be a waste of money, but a great help on their daily operations.
How many times do they underuse a ward due to a bad schedule? It is not rare to see a doctor coming into an operating theatre with a patient and find out that operating theater is already taken. It is also not rare that a patient in recovery needs to be moved from one room to another because of schedule overlapping.
A Business Intelligence solution would easily help managers:
· Schedule wards accordingly.
· Spot wards that are being over or underused.
· Track bed usage for patients in recovery.
· Calculate cost per patient and take actions to decrease it.
and many more. It is almost infinite what a health organization can achieve implementing a Business Intelligence solution.
Price are and tools should not be a problem as there are different solutions for each need.
For those who still don’t even know how BI can help their business, I recommend implementing a small solution in a small area so they can see and prove how helpful this can be. I am sure they will then want to spread it all over the organization and will leave behind many reports and old tools they have been using so far.
by Juan Ignacio Vitantonio
(freelancer, BI Project Leader)
