Growing pains: Symptoms of a healthcare business with a chronic case of stunted growth

Healthcare and well-being businesses could and should be powered through growth by insight into their data. Trouble is, without the right system in place, these businesses are experiencing an epidemic of stunted growth – and hit and hope patient improvements that deliver results that are anything but certain. We want to make a diagnosis, to get to the bottom of the three all-too-common symptoms of healthcare

Symptom One: Data – Data Everywhere

Prognosis:

Your day is frantic, and like a bad rash, you have data everywhere – reports that don’t join the dots, data that stays on paper, in different folders and many filing systems. You lack a clear view of your business, its resources, and how these resources are or aren’t being used in the most efficient way possible.

The conundrum here is that this lack of overall business view means that you may not even be aware of problems, inefficiencies or opportunities.

Diagnosis:

You need a system that features pre-built reports and widgets that are automatically fed with the right data.

More to the point, this system needs to notify you when there is valuable insight to be gained within this data – such as when pre-set KPIs are reached (such as admission rates, patient wait time, readmission rates, referrals or patient satisfaction)

Symptom Two: Confidentiality is leading to uncertainty.

Prognosis:

Protecting the data of your patients is the foundation of your business.

Yet it’s exactly because of this confidential element of your business that you’re not gaining the understanding that you need – such as why a patient doesn’t return, XorY.

Diagnosis:

You need a robustly designed system that continues to protect your patient data, but that mines data in a way that leads to an understanding of behaviour, patterns and trends for your business.

Symptom Three: The day-to-day is busy frantic

Prognosis:

Every working day is hectic. You don’t have the time to look out for opportunities for to improvements or growth.

You’re leaving money on the table – your waiting lists are growing; your target appointment times are falling by the wayside.

Diagnosis:

You need to make better use of your resources (resources that are ironically so stretched each day, that you don’t have time to analyse how they could be better used).

You need a system to tell you, automatically, where changes can be made free from the need for more human resources.