Golf is like Business Intelligence!!

I was at the golf course this past weekend. As I was having a "heart to heart" conversation with the course (ok, it was more like me pleading to the course), I realized how much the game of golf is like investing in BI.

Let's take a look. Golf is unlike other games we play. For example, if you want to play soccer, you'll go get a ball, get 22 of your friends together , find an open space and take four sticks and stick them at the opposite ends for goal posts and you are ready to go. Not with GOLF!

Even before you set foot on the course, you have to buy a set of clubs. ($2000 for a decent set). Balls - $15.00 a dozen, unless you want the soft core max distance "I can fly like a bird" kind.
Tees - $1.50
Gloves - $16.00
Shoes - $150.00
Attire ; $100.00
Lessons (unless of course you want to invest in more balls and be the laughing stock of your buddies) - $500
Round of Golf - $50.00
Your game? - Sketchy at best for the first few rounds.

Now let's look at your BI initiative:
Hardware - Depending on how many you buy, could go upto $150K.
ETL Software (Server licences) - $750K
ETL Software (Developer licenses) - $150K
Database Server license - $100K ( Again, depending on how many you buy, this could go upto $500K)
BI Server License - $60K
BI Developer Licenses - $2K

Now, you have the equipment. Next step? Hire a Golf Pro (Usually known as Big Six consulting firm) to do a gap analysis and come up with a roadmap for implementation - $200K

You can't go golfing without your buddies now, can you? (Well, if you are like me and obsessed with the game of golf, you might just do that.) But I am not talking about us corner case scenarios then, am I? Let's call your buddies your implementation team. Total cost over a period of 8 months of implementation? $1.9 M

So, like the game of Golf, even before you set foot on the course, you have spent about $2M. Then, after the round of golf (implementation period), about $4M. Get the picture? ROI??

What can you do to avoid costly mistakes?
Step1: The first thing to do is to go through the "Measure Everything That Really Impacts Customers (METRIC)" process . Once you have the repository of metrics and have decided how you want to see your data and how often, then you can go to step 2.
Step 2: Prioritize your measures according to business need. Apply the 80/20 rule. Basically, 20% of your metrics should give you 80% of the value.
Step 3: Evaluate technology solutions that fit your need
Step 4: Purchase
Step 5: Implement
Step 6: Test and Deploy

Maximum value can be achieved with a little careful planning upfront. Now, you can go play a good round (and if you are in Jacksonville, call me for that round) of golf knowing that your BI initiative is better than 60% (according to Gartner) of the initiatives out there!

The Biggest mistake some Health IT Executives will make this year

Now that the Interim Final Rule for "Meaningful Use" has been published and the reporting requirements are clearer, what is the biggest mistake one can make this year? Go out there, buy and implement an EHR solution! No, I didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Nor was there any "extra something" in my coffee! Let me explain.
The basic premise of "meaningful use" is to achieve two things.
1. Improve Quality of Care
2. Reduce Cost of Care.

Now, there will be some EHR solutions out there that will satisfy your government mandated reporting requirements. The question is, will that help reduce the cost of care or improve quality of care? The answer is a resounding NO! Why? The EHR solution, web-based or otherwise, is only going to add another silo of data in your organization. It's not going to show you the "correlation" between "Central Line infection rates" and the cost of care. It's not going to show you the correlation between "Average waiting time" and loss of revenue associated with patients leaving without being seen. Nor will it be able to historically report on the "Percentage of patients given smoking cessation counseling" and how that has improved "quality of care".

So, blindly implementing an EHR slution is only going to add another department that you have to manage. Another silo, collecting data, without producing any "meaningful use" for your organization.

So, while you are in the process of evaluating EHR software, consider the TCO and ROI for those investments. Consider how you can leverage the data being generated to add profitability to the business. Consider how you can leverage your existing data and add some "real intelligence" to the business.

Why Informatics?

Now that I am back from a little time off, let's look at the very basic question, Why Informatics? How does this work in healthcare? What are the reasons why I should even think about it? And I am over the subject of the cloud, just so you know.

Savings!!
If you are seriously considering reducing cost of care, the only way to do it is through knowledge. I mean, knowledge of your business. What are my central line infection rates? What is the average waiting time for my patients? What is the average bed occupancy rates? Having answer to these questions and many more will help you produce an effective strategy to make your business more efficient. Efficiency will then translate to savings. We all know that.

Legislation/Compliance!
If you are not already on top of this, please take some time to read through it. You will avoid a lot of heartache down the line. ARRA has some 20 odd measures that you have to report on. With penalties associated with it, if you don't comply. But other than that, when you are looking at an informatics solution, you should probably think ahead to more than just those measures and how implementing a comprehensive solution will affect the bottom line of the business. Also, you could be missing out on the Medicaid funding allocated to provider organizations under the ARRA. $2-$8M allocated for hospitals and $44K allocated for individual physicians. ROI is very evident.

That's about it.