Driving Profitability Through UnTapped Healthcare Data

I read a report from Modern Healthcare last week, which analyzed Fitch Ratings showing that healthcare organizations that implemented Health IT also had improved quality and higher profitability. The report showed that these investments in Health IT were integral to these quality and profitability achievements.

The key word is efficiency. When hospitals use technology they become more efficient, which results in increased cash flows that are available for further investment. This is a winning cycle.

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In a world where technology is rapidly advancing and user expectations are rising, it’s no longer enough to have an average user experience; to delight your users and surpass your competition you must strive for the exceptional.

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Healthcare financial executives are increasingly met with financial pressure from both inside and outside of their organization. These pressures can be overwhelming, but they should realize that these are prime conditions for driving financial value through technology. They are sitting on the untapped asset of data. By using business intelligence tools to tap into this data, healthcare organizations can drive millions in revenue and make better decisions to increase productivity, quality, and resulting revenues.

Predictive analytics are key to driving value from data. A study by ICD found that predictive analytics scored 56% higher in ROI than nonpredictive analytics. Other industries have been using these predictive analytics to drive financial effectiveness for years. The key benefit they realize are process improvements that improve quality and efficiency. Financial executives can recognize many benefits from advanced analytics. In the article “Turning Hospital Data into Dollars” by Bradley and Kaplan, the following benefits were identified:

• Identifying missing charges
• Finding underpaid accounts
• Automating aging and resolution of credit balances
• Estimating the cost for patient care (and informing doctors of these costs during treatment decisions)
• Managing float for A/R days with fewer resources

My ultimate recommendation is to implement a predictive analytics solution that can be integrated with existing healthcare IT systems. This will allow quick implementation so that quality and profitability results can be more quickly realized.