Any practice that’s focused on continuous growth can benefit from business intelligence. Business intelligence tools break down key insights from mass amounts of data that practices generate. The insight from BI tools play a big role in improving practice operations and patient outcomes.
Before jumping into how BI achieves that, let’s start at the very beginning.
What is business intelligence?
Business intelligence (BI) helps organizations analyze their current and historical data. A BI tool is vital in making all this data accessible and easy to understand.
A BI tool processes large data sets from several sources and presents findings in easy-to-understand formats like visual charts and reports. With quick access to detailed insight, BI enables organizations to make smarter data-driven decisions. This level of insight also lets organizations quickly spot issues that require their attention.
A Radiology Business Intelligence Tool captures a comprehensive view of a practice’s data. It allows practice managers and owners to drive business improvements, address bottlenecks, and adapt to market or supply changes.
Benefits of data visualization & reporting
Compared to other industries, healthcare hasn’t applied business data to the same depth and frequency. Many healthcare providers don’t invest heavily in technology like data visualization and reporting systems or apps – this might be because they’d rather invest in clinical information systems instead.
However, research has shown that users make better decisions – or at least feel more confident in the decisions they make – when they see data in tables or graphics that are easy to interpret and understand. With consistent and clear charts, users feel that they’re able to make better decisions even faster.
A clear overview of your practice
Visual and interactive reports within a BI tool let you see just exactly how your practice is performing.
For a thorough understanding of your practice’s performance, drill down your data. Having access to this level of detail is also beneficial for tracking key performance indicators (KPI). KPIs are measurable values that demonstrate if a practice is meeting their business objectives.
Examples of KPIs
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- Referral sources: Track where your referrals are coming from and the top study types
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- Staff productivity: Track the number of studies read by radiologist
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- Cancelled studies: Track the number of cancelled studies and identify any trends that need to be addressed
A BI tool that tracks and visualizes business data is especially useful for practices that have more than one location. With it, practice owners can quickly understand which location is performing well, and if there are specific locations that require more attention.
See your practice’s financial performance
BI provides you with the required insight to know where to reduce costs and how to increase revenue. You can identify profitable and underutilized services, monitor cash flow, and adjust pricing as needed.
Here are a few examples of useful BI reports that help in measuring a practice’s financial performance:
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- Weekly performance report: Shows the amount of studies and the total revenue a facility has generated in a week
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- Charges by radiologists: Get an overview of the charged amounts by radiologists, as well as RVU technical and RVU professional amounts
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- Monthly modality charges: See a breakdown of the monthly charges that each modality brings in
Ideally, you should receive email notifications that remind you to view these reports. The right BI tool lets you choose how often you’d like to receive these notifications.
BI plays a big part in helping practices make data-based decisions, which ultimately improve patient outcomes.
We’ve got a modern and user-friendly BI tool that does everything that’s been covered and more. Learn more about it here.
