A consolidated EDW is not a replacement or threat to the individual financial systems and reporting tools employed for general ledger, billing, payroll, or supply management. On the contrary, each of those systems is designed with sophisticated functionality that drives organizational efficiency. But alone, these systems realize only a portion of their true return on investment for the enterprise. As a consolidated data resource, these systems provide untold potential to address the underlying challenges to efficient, cost-effective health care.

1. Is That Data Valid?
Getting Accurate
Financial Data in
Healthcare
Jason Burke

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Healthcare Demands Accurate Data
I’ve been in many meetings
with healthcare finance
experts where the topic
turns to the validity of the
data they’re viewing.
Finance experts need
accurate, timely, actionable
financial data to make
informed decisions about
their organizations.
Key challenges to accessing
high-quality data include:
• Data connectivity
• Data storage
• Data volatility

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Data Stored in Separate Silo Systems
Each healthcare data silo
source system has a specific
functionality for that particular
department’s needs, but
generally lacks the means for
data connectivity to externals.
This limits the ability for the
organization’s data analysts
to evaluate data on an
enterprise level.

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Massive Data Storage Needs
The healthcare industry
requires the storage of
enormous quantities of data to
provide billing and patient
care.
With estimates of 100 MB of
data generated per patient, per
year, this translates to terabytes
of storage required for large
patient populations.

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Healthcare data is Highly Volatile
Business definitions are very
complex and data metrics are
constantly changing in the
healthcare industry.
Different clinicians may use
different definitions for the
same metric and decisions
can be skewed if users don’t
know which metric was
reported.

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Getting Operational Insight
Business leaders must have
confidence in the data.
Without good insight into
how their operations are
going, it’s difficult to know
where the dollars are being
spent or where to make
improvements in order to
provide the value-based
care that’s so critical in
today’s healthcare
environment.
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The EDW and Analytics Solution
It is possible, however, for
health systems to overcome
their data challenges by
adopting two key solutions —
an enterprise data warehouse
(EDW) and sophisticated
analytics applications.
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Healthcare Enterprise Data Warehouse
An EDW overcomes the
challenges of accessing the
volumes of siloed data. It
functions as a layer on top of
all of the other application
databases already in place.
It’s like a one-stop shop
where all of the information
can be accessed whenever
it’s needed. The data is
available on demand as
needed by all departments.
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Sophisticated Analytics Applications
Sophisticated analytics
applications provide value to
a healthcare organization’s
data in a way that individual
source systems can’t.
Analytics applications are
designed to work with the
EDW, so users from different
departments can drill down
and gain process insights to
make informed decisions that
drive quality improvements
and cost reductions.
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Data Drill Down
Being able to drill down into
data means that users who
are seeking answers to
specific questions are able to
click down through the
various levels of data that are
aggregated in the EDW.
For example business leaders
can access data dashboards
at facility or department level
down to account level to
identify expense or revenue
issues.
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Data Drill Through
While data drill down enables
users to access various levels
of aggregated data, data drill
through enables users to click
through to the lowest data level.
Then they can click through to
the lowest level of detail
(transactional level) from the
source systems that have
been loaded into the EDW.
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Financial Data Made Actionable
In today’s environment of value-
based care, leaders need
access to cross-organizational
data to make informed decisions
about their operations.
Using the EDW and analytics
solutions simultaneously, health
systems will have access to
transparent, reliable, timely
data that can be used to drive
confident, well-informed
decision-making.
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More about this topic
The Key to Real Quality and Cost Outcomes: Linking Clinical and Financial Data
Bobbi Brown, Vice President of Financial Engagement
Financial Management Explorer (Product Demo)
Demo of an application that shows comprehensive financial and operational metrics
How Analytics Will Lower Waste and Reduce Costs for the Healthcare Industry
Bobbi Brown, Vice President of Financial Engagement
What Does a Data Warehouse Cost? How to Get a Return on Your Investment
Dan Burton, Chief Executive Officer
Finding $5.7 Million with a Healthcare Data Warehouse
A health system case study
Link to original article for a more in-depth discussion.
Is That Data Valid? Getting Accurate Financial Data in Healthcare

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For more information:
Download Healthcare: A Better Way.
The New Era of Opportunity
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– John Haughom, MD, Senior Advisor, Health Catalyst

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Other Clinical Quality Improvement Resources
Click to read additional information at www.healthcatalyst.com
Jason Burke brings over eight years of health care experience at University of Utah
Healthcare to Health Catalyst. At the University of Utah, he spent over four years as a
data architect on the Enterprise Data Warehouse and over four years as the business
system administrator of the Enterprise Performance Management tool used to annually
budget over $1.2 billion. He has also worked with a multitude of business intelligence
tools and was responsible for executive level reports and dashboards. Mr. Burke holds a
MBA with a Management of Technology certificate and a BS from the University of Utah.