“True integration starts with the underlying data. Healthcare organizations must not only bring together data from multiple systems, but assimilate and standardize the different data types and formats.” says Taylor.
BCBSKC established an integrated enterprise data warehouse that aggregates and standardizes information from more than a dozen sources. Once integrated, this data fuels clinical applications, reporting and analysis tools, rules-based applications for specific health campaigns and initiatives, a Web portal for providers and other business- and health-related solutions.
“The new data warehouse has become the company’s information factory. Integrated data is leveraged to identify the unique healthcare needs of each plan member for placement into personal health improvement programs,” says Taylor. “It has also delivered administrative and process-oriented enhancements and improved trending and analysis efforts.”
According to Vosters, BCBSKC has successfully transitioned from a transactional health organization to a strategic health organization. Taylor agrees, noting the new data structure has enabled BCBSKC to better compete with larger, national companies that take advantage of economies of scale–in addition to delivering day-to-day care and operational improvements.
Moving from transactional to strategic
Rush Health Associates (RHA) is an Illinois-based network of healthcare providers, including the Rush University Medical Center, Rush Oak Park Hospital and more than 750 physicians who are on the medical staff of its hospital members. Company leaders recently acknowledged that clinical and operational users need reliable access to data to support decision-making and improve overall quality of care. Like BCBSKC, RHA set out to leverage its information by creating a cohesive platform that supports comprehensive reporting and analysis.
“We support hundreds of physicians, many of whom use disparate technology systems,” says Brent Estes, President and Chief Executive Officer of RHA. “In the past, we had to manually sift through their charts and databases to measure and report things like healthcare quality, compliance and efficiency. We sought to integrate not only operational and financial data, but also clinical data.”
Estes tapped HP’s Information Management Practice, which delivered a detailed analysis of RHA’s business and clinical requirements and a comprehensive plan for achieving them that included:
- The vision
- Goals and strategy
- Expected business intelligence functionality
- Technology platform
- Budgeted financial and resource investments
- Measurable success metrics
Phase One focused on putting the new data infrastructure in place and assimilating historical data sets. Phase Two, which is now in progress, incorporates clinical data and the ways in which the data will be used for improved operations, health analysis and patient care.
“To be successful with this type of project, healthcare organizations need a strong, experienced partner throughout the assessment, strategy and implementation phases” Estes advises. “HP has been great. They have helped us with business and clinical strategies, kept the big picture in mind amidst daily tasks and made sure the implementation went smoothly. As a result, we’re at a point where our data can be accessed and used for higher value initiatives.”
Transforming information
With any information transformation project, Vosters suggests healthcare organizations start with pain points and prioritize accordingly. Billing is often the first undertaking, he says, but it could be compliance reporting, process improvements or health-related initiatives. Using the HP Business Intelligence Maturity Model, HP can assess the current state of an infrastructure and its underlying data, help determine the desired future state and develop a strategic, step-by-step plan—with checkpoints and success metrics—for achievement.
“To be honest, our technologies and solutions, while exceptionally tuned for the healthcare industry, are somewhat secondary. The true value we bring is our ability to evaluate current operations and prioritize programs from clinical, business and technology perspectives,” says Vosters. “It is our job to understand health and life science endpoints, and then augment data so that it is available and useful at those endpoints.”
It is this focus on each healthcare organization, its priorities and its data—which often sits untapped and unused—that has transformed companies such as BCBSKC and RHA. By integrating and standardizing their enterprise data, they have shifted from transactional to strategic organizations and improved overall processes, operations and patient care.
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Printable version
When a person walks into a hospital, physician’s office, insurance agency or research center, it triggers an event. This event typically involves some type of care, service or research where the organization collects data. In most cases, this data leads to a transaction– and then it starts collecting dust.