STUDENT ESSAY

Decisions Through Data: Analytics in Healthcare

Wills, Mary J.

Health Care Management program, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

For more information about the concepts in this essay, contact Ms. Wills at [email protected]. Ms. Wills is the first-place winner of the undergraduate division of the 2014 ACHE Richard J. Stull Student Essay Competition in Healthcare Management. For more information about this competition, contact Sheila T. Brown at (312) 424-9316.

Journal of Healthcare Management 59(4):p 254-262, July–August 2014.

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Abstract

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The amount of data in healthcare is increasing at an astonishing rate. However, in general, the industry has not deployed the level of data management and analysis necessary to make use of those data. As a result, healthcare executives face the risk of being overwhelmed by a flood of unusable data. In this essay I argue that, in order to extract actionable information, leaders must take advantage of the promise of data analytics.

Small data, predictive modeling expansion, and real-time analytics are three forms of data analytics. On the basis of my analysis for this study, I recommend all three for adoption. Recognizing the uniqueness of each organization's situation, I also suggest that practices, hospitals, and healthcare systems examine small data and conduct real-time analytics and that large-scale organizations managing populations of patients adopt predictive modeling. I found that all three solutions assist in the collection, management, and analysis of raw data to improve the quality of care and decrease costs.