Consumers are savvier today than in the past. With the wealth of comparative information available, consumers can make more informed decisions on where to get their healthcare services. Those organizations that can provide meaningful data to consumers will have a definitive advantage in this new market dynamic.
Texas Children’s Hospital is a great example of utilizing the latest in business intelligence technology to understand outcomes. Texas Children’s is an internationally recognized pediatric hospital in Houston, Tx. Clinicians at Texas Children’s were responsible for developing and utilizing outcomes and research reports that often used different approaches to data management. This resulted in the heart center team of nurses, physicians, and researchers creating more than 450 spreadsheets along with various other disparate data sources to assist in the day to day management of patient care, research and education. The complexity of this data management infrastructure began to hinder the team’s ability to effectively manage their work resulting in reduced team productivity, low data quality, increased costs, and inefficient use of time.
To remedy this situation, Texas Children’s and the Congenital Heart Surgery Service brought in a business intelligence solution that quickly processes data from multiple systems to bring new visibility around patient outcomes with a trusted single source for data needs. Texas Children’s continues to be actively sought for congenital heart treatment with many patient families referencing the published outcomes of the surgical team. One heartwarming story of a grandmother seeking services for her yet-to-be-born granddaughter was highlighted by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a speech he gave at the Houston Technology Forum back in March.
You can read more about this, and other cases, in the Texas Children’s Hospital Outcomes book published with the Congenital Heart Surgery (CHS) data collected for 2010 http://www.texaschildrens.org/CareCenters/Heart/booklet/outcomes.aspx
