A new HIMSS Analytics survey found that while the majority of healthcare organizations — 92.7 percent — have an analytics strategy, less than one-third — 31.8 percent — have been executing on that strategy for some time.
Another 20 percent of respondents indicated they have a strategy and are in the process of implementing it, while 40.9 percent said their organization has a strategy but has yet to begin implementation.
The survey, which was sponsored by software company Dimensional Insight, included responses from 110 senior leaders at hospitals and health systems, including CEOs, CIOs, EVPs/VPs of IT and CMIOs/CNIOs.
In addition to the analytics strategy information, the survey found that decision-making in healthcare organizations is fairly siloed.
Among the respondents, 37.1 percent said they can provide insight or facilitate decisions in specific areas or on a departmental basis. Additionally, 21.4 percent indicated they can offer insight only across their hospital, and 14.3 said they can facilitate decisions across multiple hospitals in their system.
Only 24.3 percent of organizations said they can leverage analytics throughout their entire multi-hospital system.
“While many healthcare organizations have the best of intentions when it comes to analytics, they struggle with how to facilitate data-driven decision-making system-wide and on a regular basis,” Dimensional Insight president and CEO Fed Powers noted in a statement.
To ensure hospitals and health systems are getting the most out of analytics, a report on the survey included a few recommendations.
For one, leaders should ensure all the departments come to a consensus about measures definitions and are therefore working with the same set of numbers. They should also align analytics with their organization’s strategic goals. Finally, leaders should use an executive dashboard every day so they can track their progress on key measures.
Photo: goir, Getty Images
