Understanding the complexity of healthcare data is more important than ever due to the evolution of electronic health information and preparation for future evolution involving new technologies such as artificial intelligence. Hospitals and clinics, rural or urban, stand-alone or integrated delivery system, all need to understand and manage their healthcare data as an asset of the organization.

Healthcare data is often differentiated by its use. For example, clinical data is used and produced by caregivers, administrative and financial data produced via revenue cycle processes, analytics and business intelligence is often produced in analytics departments or on-the-fly as users need the data, and data infrastructure supports the system.

Healthcare data is also differentiated by its format. Often, healthcare organizations have healthcare data in physical format such as paper and films, in addition to digital format to include structured (choose from menu or drop box) and unstructured data (computer entry of text data), and metadata (data that describes the healthcare data).

This graph provides examples of the use and format of healthcare data:

An understanding of the type of data available and where the data resides enables organizations to dive deeper into their health information assets. Organizations can determine which data sets are part of the legal medical record and which data sets are part of the designated record set. This distinction is important to understand for release of information purposes, for reimbursement purposes, and for reporting purposes. A thorough understanding of your healthcare data now will position your organization for the future.

Haugen Consulting Group has experts in healthcare data that can assist you with your healthcare data assessment. We understand the processes your patients move through and the data that is collected during those processes of care. We will help assess your vital data, identify improvement opportunities in your data collection and reporting processes, and help you prepare a foundation for future changes. Contact us!