According to the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, healthcare accounts for over 19% of the GDP? With such a large share of the economy going to healthcare spending, it is vital to track the effectiveness and viability of those services.
Today we focus on how business intelligence tools like Microsoft's Power BI are a vital part of the solution to ensure a better future for the healthcare industry.
Why use Power BI for better healthcare?
1. Streamline critical health data
Over the past decade, healthcare received a flood of data that was unavailable just a few short years ago. The advances are thanks to the new cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and other tracking technologies.
The challenge with this influx of data is categorizing and interpreting the data in a unified platform. Power BI streamlines multiple data feeds into stunning visuals that healthcare organizations can use to improve the level of care they provide.
With daily patient statistics, resources, and top healthcare issues at their fingertips, organizations can customize their approach to medicine based on specific needs and not general estimates.
2. Faster decisions
In the past, healthcare organizations would gather the data on patients, revenue, and medical plans on a monthly or quarterly report. While this was not ideal, it was the status quo for decades due to limitations in resources and technology.
Healthcare organizations today need to make faster decisions to ensure the best care possible.
Power BI revolutionizes the speed of feedback organizations receive so that they can make decisions faster. The tool leverages Electronic Health Records (EHR) and turns them into visual dashboards clinicians can easily understand at a glance.
Physicians can make real-time decisions to evaluate and improve the quality of their advice. These business intelligence tools analyze patients' history and past results for specific diseases to improve their confidence in the course of treatment they recommend.
3. Simplify complex processes
The final component of why organizations use Power BI for healthcare is to streamlines insanely complex processes.
Healthcare organizations must balance several factors such as:
- Average Hospital Stay
- Patient Wait Time
- Treatment Costs
- Hospital Readmission Rates
- Patient Satisfaction
- Patient Safety
- ER Wait Time
- Fundraising Initiatives
Using their Power BI dashboard and EHR together helps operations stay lean because they leverage their resources based on their specific needs. They can track key hospital indicators like:
- The number of patients admitted over specific timeframes
- Treatment costs
- Average emergency room wait times
- Incoming and outgoing patient numbers (per department)
- Possible patient readmission rate
Final Thoughts
Healthcare organizations are looking at better ways to ensure how patients' data can improve their quality of care while maintaining their bottom line. Power BI helps them understand what they need to reach this goal.
If your healthcare organization wants to leverage Power BI to make smarter decisions, schedule a free 1-hour Power BI consultation today.