If Big Data is the new oil in healthcare, clinical & business intelligence is the refinery.
Data alone is like crude oil – the value is tied to its potential. In the era of Big Data our healthcare organizations have learned that gathering data for the sake of gathering data yields little benefit. However, when data – as with crude oil - is refined the opportunities for use are multiplied.
HIMSS Analytics’ recent Essentials Brief, the 2015 Clinical & Business Intelligence Study, found a 6 percent increase in the number of organizations using a C&BI solution since 2013. This increase indicates the growing importance of clinical and business analytics within healthcare organizations. Not only are they striving to use data to make better clinical decisions, they are positioning themselves to benefit from a revenue standpoint as the industry shifts from a fee-based to a value-based care model.
Just as an oil refinery adjusts strategy to accommodate production, a healthcare organization must ensure its strategy accounts for changing care models. The primary goal of an organization’s C&BI strategy is to improve clinical outcomes while adapting to new care models. In an effort to move in that direction, organizations have begun to slowly implement initiatives around population health, making it the primary focus area for C&BI solutions in 2015 compared to Accountable Care in 2013.
There’s more than one constituency in the oil game and the same is true in healthcare IT. Due to the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use, EHR/HIS vendors have seen unprecedented adoption of their solutions. In fact, 52 percent of those polled said they currently use their EHR/HIS vendor for C&BI.
But don’t confuse usage with contentment – overall user satisfaction of C&BI solutions remains moderate at just over 6 on a 0-10 scale (0 = not satisfied, 10 = extremely satisfied). While EHR/HIS vendors are trying to meet the needs of their clients, the target remains in motion as organizations determine which tools they need.
In the end, the market continues to evolve and whether C&BI will be healthcare IT’s next black gold rush remains to be seen. To learn more about CB&I trends, see the infographic below, and get the 2015 Clinical & Business Intelligence Study.
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