ABSTRACT
Healthcare organizations have a wealth of data available to them to conduct very productive and insightful analytic work. Essential to managing the business affairs of a healthcare organization is an entirely different set of applications aimed at operational functions, such as billing and collection, purchasing and inventory of clinical supplies, payroll, and claims adjudication and accounts payable systems. Administrative and clinical applications used in healthcare organizations rely on databases to compile and organize data for use within the application. Healthcare organizations gather tremendous amounts of data that can be used to further the analysis of operational performance and identify areas of weakness. Healthcare providers gather significant amounts of data on a routine basis, but do not make use of those data to analyze and understand organizational performance or to find ways to improve performance. Healthcare businesses can use the data they routinely gather to make necessary changes to operations that will improve profitability and patient care.
