ViewPoints Blog

Healthcare leaders have long been living in conflicting worlds governed by contrary incentives. What is operationally good for physicians may not be in the best interest of hospital staff or patients. What is best for a patient may not be supported by family or even allowed by state and federal laws. And what is good for the overall health of an organization may not be in its long-term best financial interest.

As the country's healthcare systems experience further declines in reimbursement and looming downgrades, the spotlight is increasingly turning to the financial losses coming from employed physicians.

Big data is the current buzz word in healthcare, and with good reason. Today, analytics platforms and ratings systems offer valuable insights into how healthcare providers manage patient care, cost and outcomes. There is no shortage of big data available across the healthcare landscape today; the challenge lies in effectively analyzing the data to better understand the cycle of care, implement the necessary improvements and ultimately, improve patient outcomes and keep cost low.

Today, health providers cannot afford to have their access to mission-critical data trapped behind outdated information management protocols. To see inter-relationships, often between different functions such as market, clinical, operational and financial, data is critical in order to discover and understand underlying causes and implications of problems or opportunities.

Supply chain management has been part of the healthcare lexicon for many years now. The traditional materials management activities have broadened beyond just contracting, warehousing and distribution, and have resulted in tighter pricing, lower per unit costs, improved standardization, and better awareness of each individual's role in the organization of managing supply costs. So far, so good, right?