Healthcare executives interested in learning strategies for formulating a clinical and business intelligence strategic plan should attend the C&BI Symposium, a daylong event being held on March 3 at the 2013 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition.

Attendees will learn why converging clinical and operational data is critical to their businesses and will gain practical knowledge of how to roll out a successful program, according to Mary Griskewicz, senior director, healthcare information systems at HIMSS.

“How do you implement business intelligence in a healthcare organization? There are certain processes and principles that you have to go through,” said Griskewicz.

Griskewicz stressed that becoming efficient at collecting and disseminating data will be the key to success for all healthcare providers in the future because healthcare reform legislation now ties reimbursements to outcomes.
“It is really important to understand that as you go through healthcare transformation, you need the data,” she said. “You need to understand why the stent costs what it does. You need to understand why one surgeon’s outcomes are better than another’s.”

“You need the data to prove that you have better outcomes and to provide good patient care and at the same time to keep the lights on,” added Griskewicz.

Among the areas of focus that Griskewicz said will be discussed throughout the symposium are “measuring, analyzing and scrubbing the data.”

Attendees will also be guided through the steps involved in launching a strategic clinical and business intelligence program at their own organization and will walk away with an action plan, said Griskewicz, who noted that the first objective for the day is to “talk about the why.”

“Then, when you understand the why, there are steps at the highest level that you need to go through, standard steps,” she said. “It all goes back to really good project management. … (Speakers) will bring attendees through the process so when they leave, they will know the steps they have to go through.”

Griskewicz wants attendees to leave the event feeling like they are armed with the knowledge they need to make progress within their business. “The whole point is to really have folks come away thinking ‘this is how I can do this in my organization,’” she said.

The symposium’s sessions will take place in Room 271 in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.