The Healthcare Analytics Puzzle

The latest KLAS report discusses the complicated, puzzle-like world of healthcare analytics.

In 2011 Ravensburger, a large puzzle and game company out of Germany, released a puzzle with over 32,000 pieces. The finished puzzle measures 17 feet by 6 feet. In September of 2013, one puzzle enthusiast reported that it had taken him more than 360 hours across the span of a year to complete the puzzle. Having only ever completed a 1,000- or 2,000-piece puzzle myself, I feel that looking at over 32,000 pieces and trying to figure out how they fit together would be daunting, frustrating, and incredibly overwhelming. The parts and pieces of healthcare analytics and BI are similar to the pieces of Ravensburger’s enormous puzzle—there are too many to count and they are often overwhelming to put together.

The latest KLAS report, Healthcare Analytics: Making Sense of the Puzzle Pieces discusses the complicated, puzzle-like world of healthcare analytics and the difficulties providers are having figuring it out. Providers are looking to go to the next level with healthcare analytics. With 47% of respondents reporting getting extensive insights from their BI tools and 23% reporting using their BI tools for ACO-related analysis, understanding the different pieces of the puzzle is critical for provider success. The report focuses on helping providers differentiate between the growing numbers of vendor solutions and divides the different vendors into four categories: enterprise, area focused, EMR, and emerging.

By looking at the different pieces of the healthcare analytics puzzle and understanding how the players are different, providers can start to see the individual, mismatched pieces come together to form the big picture. Although there is still a lot of work to be done, a few vendors are standing out with great success and are helping providers put the puzzle together.