How Healthcare Data Helps Caregivers

Dramatic change is coming to healthcare--to patient treatment, providers' business models, and the government's role in regulation and reimbursement. There are many drivers, and not everyone's on board, but the one defining factor is that these changes all depend on the intelligent use of data.

Large healthcare organizations already use business intelligence and analytics tools as a standard part of their financial and administration processes--to streamline billing, manage financial performance, allocate staff and equipment, better manage patients as they move through the organization, and uncover revenue opportunities. They're also starting to use these tools to improve their insight into the effectiveness of patient treatments, and to move toward the quality healthcare objectives and pay-for-performance metrics that are becoming an integral part of federal funding and reimbursement.