Survey: Just 1 in 4 Healthcare Orgs Use Executive Dashboards for Daily Decision Making

Less than one-quarter of healthcare organizations are leveraging executive dashboards to support strategic decision-making on a daily basis, according to a new report from HIMSS Analytics and Dimensional Insight, a provider of data management and analytics solutions.

As the researchers of the report noted, hospitals and health systems have mountains of clinical, operational, and financial data at their disposal, thanks to the proliferation of electronic health records (EHRs), time management systems, and other sources of data within their organizations. But they key question to find out was, according to the report’s authors, can they successfully harness that data to support strategic decision-making at the executive level?

The survey, which included feedback from 110 senior healthcare leaders, found that while approximately two-thirds of healthcare organizations (68 percent) have an executive dashboard to support strategic decision-making, only one-third of those organizations (35 percent) use it on a daily basis. That means that in total, less than one in four healthcare organizations (24 percent) leverage their data at an executive level daily, the research revealed.

The survey results also showed:

• While the majority (93 percent) of organizations have an analytics strategy, less than one-third (32 percent) have been executing on that strategy for some time.

• More than half of organizations (59 percent) use the analytics provided through their executive dashboard to facilitate decisions at only a departmental or single-hospital level.

• Only 24 percent of healthcare organizations are able to leverage analytics throughout an entire multi-hospital system.

What’s more, the survey looked at the number of analytics solutions in use. It found that healthcare organizations are using average of nearly four analytics tools. Approximately one in six organizations (17 percent) have 10 or more analytics solutions that they are using across their system.

“While many healthcare organizations have the best of intentions when it comes to analytics, they struggle with how to facilitate data-driven decision-making system-wide and on a regular basis,” Fred Powers, president and CEO of Dimensional Insight, said in a statement. “The sheer number of analytics tools in use means that different departments within an organization will often have different numbers or measures, and it’s hard to reconcile them, leading to a more siloed look at data.”