Healthcare Systems: How to Solve the Data Delivery Problem

In the George Bernard Shaw’s play Man and Superman, a character states: “The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.”

Aside from being free advertising for skilled tailors (who are worth every penny), this view makes the case for the delivery of healthcare data: it should be customized to align with the parameters of each request, and not doled out in a one-size-fits-all manner. Yet this is what is taking place in many healthcare systems, and has been happening for years.

› Read More

“Elementary, My Dear Watson”: How to Find Missing Healthcare Data after a Major System Upgrade

Across the years, Sherlock Holmes has been counted on to solve all kinds of seemingly impenetrable cases that have baffled lesser minds. For example (and spoiler alerts for those uninitiated in the Sherlockian Arts), he deduced with surgical precision that the killer in Hound of the Baskervilles was the nasty neighbor, and that the Red-Headed League was actually a ruse designed to help two would-be robbers dig a tunnel to a bank. Not too shabby for a guy who had a habit of storing tobacco inside a slipper.

› Read More

8 Types of Reports that Help Hospitals Get Leaner

The coronavirus pandemic has unleashed unprecedented financial pressure on hospitals to get leaner and become more agile; especially with a third wave on the horizon (in fact, some observers say that the third wave is already here). Yet at the same time, hospitals cannot risk making cuts that adversely impact patients who receive care, or the staff members who deliver it.

› Read More

5 Ways that Covid-19 Could Improve the Future of Healthcare

The Covid-19 crisis is far from over. However, the experience so far is revealing ways that the overall healthcare system could be improved to benefit patients, providers and communities.

› Read More

6 Types of Reports to Help Hospitals Chart and Navigate the Post-Coronavirus Restart

According to a report by the American Hospital Association (AHA), since March hospitals across the U.S. have lost an estimated $50 billion by complying with guidance from policymakers to preserve resources for COVID-19 patients. To navigate the post-coronavirus restart, here are some examples of reports designed to help hospitals increase revenues, contain costs, reduce expenditures, improve quality of care, and ensure compliance.

› Read More

How Shared Learning is Helping Hospitals Identify Patients with COVID-19

One of the defining characteristics of healthcare is that there is (and always will be) an iterative aspect when dealing with new conditions and diseases. The good news is that process leads to therapies, cures and vaccines. The bad news is that, because there are so many stakeholders in the system, it takes a while for raw information to evolve into actionable intelligence — which is an aspect that deeply frustrates practitioners who desperately want to help, along with patients who desperately need it.

› Read More

How Integrated Reports Empower Hospitals’ Unheralded Heroes: Cost Accountants

Despite their vital contributions, cost accountants struggle mightily to get the basic data they need to do their jobs. For example, consider a cost accountant who is mandated to gather, classify, analyze, summarize, and allocate costs associated with the organization.

› Read More

The 3 A’s of Meaningful Operational Reports: Available, Accessible and Actionable

Mark Twain once said that the difference between the right word and the almost right word “’tis the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.” Well, if Mr. Twain was a 21st century Medical Director instead of a 19th century writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer (plus legend has it that he loved cats), in making his point he might have swapped lightening and lightening bugs for a different tandem: meaningful operational reports and misleading hospital reports.

› Read More

5 Key Elements of Automation in Healthcare Reporting

Automation is one of those concepts that can mean different things to different organizations — and quite often, to different people in the same organization!

› Read More

On the Road to ACO: How Hospitals Can Mine Nuggets from Mountains of Claims Data

For the accountable care model to achieve its potential and purpose, hospitals need visibility beyond their walls to understand where and when patients are seeking health services, and how that access ultimately affects the bottom-line. However, many hospital executives would admit that that their organization’s road to accountable care has been bumpy rather than uplifting.

› Read More