Applying Business Intelligence to the Needs of Healthcare Organizations

Source:  Mark LaRow, for HealthLeaders News, July 17, 2007

With the increasing challenges faced by the healthcare industry, providers must keep up with or stay one step ahead of the competition. Business intelligence can help healthcare agencies, payers and hospitals increase competitive advantage by devising smart business solutions and enabling better business decisions every day.

Business intelligence software allows companies to tap into their many databases and deliver easy-to-comprehend insight to employees, management, and business partners. Business intelligence software is already being used by thousands of companies to find new revenue opportunities, reduce costs, reallocate resources, and improve operational efficiency.

When properly applied to data within healthcare organizations, business intelligence provides the insight needed to increase revenue, reduce costs, and comply with industry regulations and standards. In addition, organizations are given the tools they need to make the best use of the vast amounts of information available to them, allowing them to operate more efficiently and improve patients' well-being.

Whether starting with one or several applications, healthcare providers can evolve to utilize business intelligence applications unique competencies: an easy-to-use unified Web interface with extranet and intranet capabilities, access for thousands of users, reporting and analysis of tremendous amounts of data across multiple sources, graphical dashboards and boardroom-quality reports, unconstrained analytical flexibility, and industry-leading security architecture.