Four Steps to Enhancing Organization Effectiveness through Your Analytics Strategy

Review of the analytics strategy in your organization is integral to increasing organizational effectiveness and improving financial health. Dashboards and reporting are both important tools as they allow leadership to view data in real time and/or trended to signal opportunities and barriers. Below are four key steps to consider during this process.

Step One: Document Current State

Document the current state and identify the dashboards and reports in use for all levels of leadership. Drill down to determine if the reports and components on the dashboard are meeting the needs and providing actionable direction to executives, directors and managers. Confirm metrics being monitored and consider additional opportunities. Utilize benchmark data from professional organizations such as HFMA, HIMSS and MGMA to establish targets. Note your baseline in order to demonstrate progress.

Step Two: Assess

Interview leaders to understand KPIs and analyses being used, and identify information currently not available, but that would be of value. Interviews should include the C-suite, directors and managers. Consider creating dashboards for staff to allow them to compare to other clients and benchmarks. Utilize automation to ensure reports run at the appropriate frequency (real time vs. weekly or monthly) and that charts and graphs are generated for visualization. Develop an inventory by role.

Step Three: Analyze

Analyze the findings and develop a plan to enrich the content. Once the list of enhancements is developed, complete a “gap assessment” and determine if/where the content is available. Dashboards can provide a snapshot or show trends of key work queues, staff productivity, and Top 10 denial types by payer type, denial type, volume of denials, and/or dollar amount. Determine how often the information is needed – in real time or trended. Trending of denials can alert you if a change in your denial strategy is required or if a payer is not paying your claims. Real time provides a snapshot in time. Dashboards and reporting can help to bring in content from the billing system, data warehouses, Cognos, Tableau and clarity to assist your analysis.

Step Four: Transform

Dashboards and reporting are not just for the C-suite, but for all levels. Present the plan to leaders and propose new and enhanced content for everyone. Dashboards are a great vehicle to show important items such as payments, days in Accounts Receivable, Average Daily Revenue, Clean Claim percentage, DNFB, Error Pool, Claim Edits or late charges. Ensure users are involved in the process; allow them to participate in design, build, and validation and sign off prior to launching the new tools into production. Ensure the metrics and information cascades down from the executives, to the director level to the managers.

Information that is integral to organizational goals needs to flow to all levels to ensure accountability and improved performance. Lastly, provide training to ensure leaders know how to utilize and access the enhanced dashboards. Providing actionable data is part of the roadmap to transforming your organization.

Prioritizing these steps will give you a leg up in reviewing your analytics strategy, ultimately making the process run more smoothly and providing the best outcome for your organization.