Hospitals: How to Ensure the Reporting You NEED is the Reporting You GET

Missing the Memo on Customer Experience

On today’s customer-centric landscape, it is not difficult to see that some organizations have “not received the memo” on optimizing customer experience. Here are just some of the most egregious swings and misses:

• Automated phone answering systems that force callers to listen to every conceivable option before making a choice.
• Cell phone service packages that are so full of gimmicks and disclaimers, that trying to compare options is painful at best, impossible at worst, and headache-inducing at all times.
• Software that must be upgraded in order to access features that, without question, should already be included (imagine buying a car and finding out after you drive home that if you want the headlights to work, that you need to buy an add-on!).

We could go on — but in the interests of keeping blood pressure at safe levels — we won’t. Suffice it to say, a surprising number of organizations in all sectors and industries continue to talk a good game when it comes to “optimizing customer experience,” but consistently fail to deliver.

When User Friendly Analytics Tools…Aren’t

In the same light, many hospitals are struggling with the fact that their promised “user friendly” analytics tools are neither usable nor friendly. Instead of leveraging clear, updated and actionable reporting, hospitals are constrained by data silos, and forced to choose various “canned” options that are incomplete, slow and limited.

Why is this happening? It is rooted in the same problem that frustrates consumers: vendors are not interested in closing the gap. Yes, they provide support for their specific tool per obligations in the purchase agreement. But no, they do not ensure that each hospital gets the comprehensive, customized reporting that they need. It is not part of their scope, and they are not obligated or incentivized to lean forward.

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle

Faced with this scenario, hospitals have a key decision to make: they can continue trying — and inevitably failing — to solve this problem using in-house knowledge capital (that they do not have), or they can partner with consulting experts who specialize in achieving what vendors have not, cannot, and will not do: close the gap!

Indeed, rather than narrowly focusing on a specific tool, consulting experts look at the big picture — i.e. how all of the data sources fit together — in order to ensure that hospitals consistently get reporting that is:

• Customized based on specific requirements (types, departments served, etc.)
• Refreshed daily to ensure accuracy and reliability
• Cost-effective to produce
• Quick to create — with some requests available the same day

The Bottom Line

Vendors over-promise and under-deliver when it comes to giving hospitals the reporting functionality they need to make smarter, safer and faster decisions regarding clinical care practices, physician performance management, organizational efficiency, and so on. That is where consulting experts enter the picture, close the gap, and ultimately ensure that the reporting that hospitals NEED is in full alignment with the reporting they GET!

Next Steps

At Polaris, our unique role-based reporting solution ensures that each member of the health care enterprise receives the information they need to make fast, informed decisions. And since all members are working with the same data and tool set, information is consistent across departments — which ensures accuracy and appropriateness.

To learn more about our solutions, technologies and approach, contact the Polaris team today.