I just finished watching a quick slideshow on the Health Data Management website, “Enterprise Analytics: Moving on Up” and as luck would have it, I also watched several sessions of the live Webcast from the Healthcare Innovation Day Conference 2014 in Washington, DC, sponsored by West Health Institute and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
While I was watching these, I was intrigued by the thought of how Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) can leverage existing solutions, combined with point solutions, to accomplish their reporting, analytics and beyond, and use interoperability wisely. One of the key learning points for me from these sessions was this: “Reframe the problem”….advice from Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote address.
How do we “reframe the problem” when it comes to ACO reporting and analytics? There are defined metrics that are required for these organizations, so how can we leverage existing systems to create these reports and analytics? Do we “build vs. buy”? Depending upon the organizational size, legacy systems and IT support, the decision can be difficult. What is good for one system may not work in another. So where do we start?
A strategic evaluation of current state and desired future state with the development of a road map may be a logical first step. Data Governance also needs to happen early on in the process to allow an organization to create data standards that will drive reporting and analytics. Once these steps have occurred, an organization can feel confident that they can make an informed decision to “build or buy.”
If you choose to build, there are excellent offerings for Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI), and reporting and analytics solutions from IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.
The “buy” decision can be even tougher because there are numerous point solutions available which can be layered onto existing legacy systems to extract data for reporting and analytics. Many times these solutions have very defined purposes, which may be exactly what you need to fill a gap in your reporting structure at a lower cost than building it. There are solutions which focus primarily on ACO’s, Care Coordination or Population Health. If needed, there are also point solutions which provide excellent reporting capabilities with familiar outputs such as PowerView and PowerPivot, Cognos or Business Objects.
So “reframe the problem” by evaluating what works best for your organization.
“Take all these extraordinary tools we have out there, and have them work together and who knows what extraordinary changes that can bring about?” Gladwell concluded in his speech. “You are on to something very crucial here, and I wish you all the best.”
Go to HIMSS and start looking. Perficient would be happy to help! Stop by Booth 2035 to see us.
