When businesses go through multiple acquisitions and mergers, they typically have to contend with exploding data volumes. With a lot more information to manage—spread across multiple systems— business intelligence becomes a major challenge.
In these scenarios, managers may lack the necessary report-generation capabilities to generate the KPIs they need to monitor how well the business is taking care of customers and how efficiently internal teams are performing. They may try exporting the data from the various systems into a spreadsheet, which could address the issue in the short term. But it can be difficult for managers to combine separate data sets to get at the information they need.
The managers will likely waste a lot of time trying to manipulate the spreadsheets every time they set up a report. What’s needed instead is a tool that automatically generates the precise information that’s required.
Healthcare Centers Deploys Power BI to Manage Patient Outcomes
This situation is very similar to what Bighorn Valley Health Center, based in Montana, went through. After merging with two other healthcare organizations, managers at Bighorn Valley found they simply had too much data to work with to evaluate patient care and the utilization of doctors and nurses. Rebecca Mussetter, who manages data analytics for the organization solved this challenge by deploying Microsoft Power BI.
Power BI pulls data from the Bighorn Valley electronic health record system and merges the data sets from each of the three healthcare centers that the organization now oversees. To convert the data into actionable information, Mussetter collaborated with Western Computer to create dashboards that generate a wide range of reports.
The Clinical Opportunities dashboard makes it easy to identify clinical needs for each patient.
Doctors and nurses use the dashboard every day to confirm patient data and to conduct outreach to patients who require critical quality care measures. This helps make sure patients stay on schedule for tests and regular treatments. Doctors can also compare their patient treatments to other doctors in the organization, and the managers of each of the Bighorn Valley clinics can compare their overall activities to other clinics.
Analyzing Staff Utilization Helps Plan Revenue Strategies
The other key dashboard for Bighorn Valley focuses on productivity and includes 20 tabs with reports that executives can access. These reports include the number of patients each doctor and nurse provides services to each day in comparison to national averages. Because Bighorn Valley is a nonprofit, this utilization rate is important because it correlates strongly to the revenue that, in addition to grant funding, allows them to operate sustainability.
Other key reports Mussetter and the Bighorn Valley team value include patient cancellations, no-shows, walk-ins, same-day appointments, and future open capacity for doctors and nurses. Power BI also makes it possible to analyze cycles—the amount of time patients spend at clinics during each phase of a visit, such as waiting in reception.
Analysis Capabilities Contribute to Cultural Shift
In looking back on the success of the Power BI project, Mussetter says, “It has been exciting to see the culture change as we rely more and more on Power BI reports. Western Computer has played a key role in this culture shift and will no doubt help us tap into many new sources of information that can drive improved patient care.”
To find out more about how we helped Bighorn Valley Health Center leverage Microsoft Power BI to analyze patient care and monitor the activities of doctors and nurses, you can download the full customer success story. We would also be glad to schedule a call to discuss how we can help your organization achieve similar benefits. Feel free to contact us to get the conversation started.
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