medisolution understands complex healthcare data

MEDISOLUTION UNDERSTANDS COMPLEX HEALTHCARE DATA
Confidently identifying emerging trends and prescribing the best treatment
Quality in Healthcare
COMPANY PROFILE
by producing new policy documents aimed at improving the quality
Founded in 1974, MediSolution is a leading healthcare and
public sector information technology company providing
software, solutions and services across North America. More than
300 organizations rely on MediSolution to maximize operational
efficiencies, lower costs, and improve service delivery.
of healthcare. In this movement toward comprehensive and
MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIES
Since the early 1980s, governments and industry watchdogs have
been looking to enforce healthcare standards across North America
accessible healthcare reform, there is a new spotlight on “the
consumer” as the centre of a progressive, efficient, and effective
system. However, one cannot measure progress without specific
measurement aids in place.
Concerns around quality service and funding merit have given rise
to the need for structured accountability. In order to establish this,
parties must be aware of performance expectations and be able to
achieve and confirm measured outcomes. One way this is being
achieved is through newly implemented accountability and
performance indicators against which healthcare providers can
measure performance internally and be assessed by external bodies,
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Office System
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
• Microsoft Office Performance Point Server
PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
• The Financial Management Suite is a modular set of Financials
Procurement, and Budgeting solutions.
• The Human Capital Management Suite effectively develops
and manages staff via Human Resources, Self-Service Portal,
Scheduling, Time, Attendance, and Payroll software systems.
• Business Intelligence (BI) Solutions allow organizations to
transform data into vital information for effective
decision-making.
stakeholders, and patients.
• Blood Bank Solutions provide complete hemo-vigilance to
improve patient safety, reduce waste, and increase efficiency
for blood transfusion services.
According to established standards in North America, three
BI SOLUTION EXAMPLES
essential components ensure accountability and innovation:
• Human Resources: BI provides the insight required to
efficiently measure retention and turn-over rates at a
single or multi-site facility.
1) Defining expectations
2) Reporting on and monitoring performance
3) Taking results-based action.
• Finance: For both centralized and decentralized systems,
BI solutions provide timely data on budget variance, inventory
levels, and supplier performance.
• Blood Bank: Sophisticated BI solutions make it possible to track
turn-around times, costs, and percentage of waste in the
operation of blood banks.
• Clinical: Understanding bed occupancy rates and procedure
volumes enable efficient and effective service delivery.
MEDISOLUTION UNDERSTANDS COMPLEX HEALTHCARE DATA
Confidently identifying emerging trends and prescribing the best treatment
What’s to Measure?
There are a number of domains or qualities against which best practices for healthcare providers can be established
and measured. Domains can include acceptability, accessibility, appropriateness, competence, continuity,
effectiveness, efficiency and safety.1
For each domain, various key indicators have been developed. In the case of efficiency, for example,
indicators may include:
• Health spending per capita
• Labour overhead
• Needs-based resource allocation strategy
• Community/institutional balance
• Resource intensity planning
• Unit costs and cost per patient
• Budget for evaluation and performance monitoring.2
Not all indicators will be relevant to all healthcare organizations. However, all indicators are relevant to at
least one of three levels: client, program, or system. To illustrate the way domains, indicators and levels interact,
the following table3 includes three examples:
Domain
Indicator
Level
Utility Context
Effectiveness
Mortality
System
Policy
Efficiency
Labour Overhead
Program
Program
Safety
Medication Errors
Client
Clinical
In the first example, the top-down thread runs from Effectiveness through to Policy. Mortality is one indicator that can
be used to measure the effectiveness of a system. If mortality is high, the system is demonstrating poor effectiveness.
The source of this ineffectiveness is a set of policies upon which decisions related to mortality are made. Thus,
policy is identified as the target for change in order to decrease mortality and improve system effectiveness.
But how does an organization effectively, efficiently, and repeatedly measure and report trends to external parties?
1
Accountability and Performance Indicators for Mental Health Services and Supports: A Resource Kit
<http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/mh-sm/pdf/apimhss.pdf> Accessed: December 10, 2008. P36.
2
Supra. P54.
3
Supra. p64-5.
MEDISOLUTION UNDERSTANDS COMPLEX HEALTHCARE DATA
Confidently identifying emerging trends and prescribing the best treatment
The Top Three Healthcare Information Management Pains
Healthcare organizations face new challenges as healthcare standards are introduced and enforced. Standards for
measuring healthcare quality make competition between hospitals more pronounced while, in some cases,
healthcare facilities must comply as minimum standards are required by government mandate. In the struggle to
meet new requirements, many hospitals have resorted to having staff manually generate the necessary reports
since this burden is beyond the reach of legacy systems and disparate platforms.
Three main challenges arise from this growing and increasingly formal need to report performance against
indicators to external groups.
1) Manual Production of Performance Reports
Corporate Services and Finance typically call on IT to query databases and run reports. Some information is
easily attained and some not. There are usually 15 to 30 different hospital information systems, and IT must
query all of them in order to extract the necessary information. Interpretation of data sometimes requires
lengthening the already drawn-out delivery process. While generating information manually is a challenge,
manually maintaining easy-to-reference records is perhaps more challenging still.
2) Sharing Information Across the Organization
First and foremost, healthcare providers need a secure environment for publishing and viewing reports. Without
this, printed queries are circulated amongst management, limiting the number of people able to view the results
concurrently by the number of printed copies. In order to keep sensitive materials private, it is also necessary to
manually black out data on the query printouts. These factors contribute to a lengthy and slow process.
3) Tracking Performance from an Organizational Standpoint
Many healthcare watchdog agencies establish scorecards that healthcare providers regularly populate. The
practical purpose of these sometimes mandated KPI evaluations is of extreme importance to hospitals.
Performance is linked to competitiveness and market viability in private systems and funding merit in public
systems. Compiling and retaining specific records is therefore necessary.
MEDISOLUTION UNDERSTANDS COMPLEX HEALTHCARE DATA
Confidently identifying emerging trends and prescribing the best treatment
The Solution
With 35 years of extensive industry experience, MediSolution intimately understands the needs and challenges
of healthcare providers. Accordingly, MediSolution uses Microsoft BI solutions and custom-created tools based
on the Microsoft platform to service healthcare providers across North America.
MediSolution’s Virtuo Business Intelligence collects and assembles data that can be used to monitor the
performance of a single department, a division or an entire facility. Healthcare executives and departmental
managers can use the solution to discover best financial and patient care in practices and align those practices
with strategies to measure performance against strategic goals. This system also helps executives “manage risk”
and adopt best practices based on evidence reporting.
This is accomplished through instant and graphical views of trends, critical-concern alerts, and other important
issues. Powerful dashboard visuals communicate complex business and operational performance issues quickly
and intuitively. Individuals can view and combine data to immediately see developing trends, areas that need
attention, and other indicators.
MediSolution significantly invests in the Virtuo Business Intelligence solution to
allow customers to easily and cost-effectively deploy BI without incurring
the major costs associated with building in-house solutions.
MEDISOLUTION UNDERSTANDS COMPLEX HEALTHCARE DATA
Confidently identifying emerging trends and prescribing the best treatment
Performance Management
When watchdog agencies across North America began introducing standards in healthcare, they initiated a ripple
effect. New reporting requirements meant that healthcare providers needed to take a deep-dive look into the
quality of their policies, programs and practices. In order to remain relevant, business solution providers had to
follow suit and delve into the intricate details of healthcare quality assurance. Those providers that grew to
understand the industry rose to the top. By internalizing the needs of healthcare providers, relevant business
solutions are possible.
MediSolution’s ultimate goal is to deliver a robust and effective Performance Management Cycle to assist in the
maintenance and improvement of a quality healthcare industry. A Performance Management Cycle is a process by
which goals are set, strategies are identified, results are measured, performance is rated, corrective action is applied,
and reports are delivered. This cycle is the greatest tool supporting accountability and progress in healthcare.
A knowledgeable Consultant can help redeem a healthcare provider that otherwise demonstrates lackluster
results. MediSolution has helped in the effective elimination of all manual interventions to extract information
and produce executive reports for its healthcare clients. MediSolution has turned data into actionable business
knowledge to help secure quality service and enable confident decision-makers.
By breaking down the vast silos of disparate departmental data systems and making the information usable
across healthcare enterprises, MediSolution helps providers identify emerging trends and take action quickly
to ensure quality is never in jeopardy. Immediately understanding the relationships between multiple metrics
means hospitals can re-allocate resources and budget to address problem areas and new healthcare reporting
initiatives on a timely basis.
For a free BI consultation and readiness assessment,
contact 1-866-4MS-INFO or
visit www.medisolution.com.