Advanced health information systems provide the big data necessary to merge healthcare business intelligence and clinical analytics in support of dual needs to reduce costs and improve the quality of care, but organizations are just beginning to realize its value. Representatives from Lakeland Regional Medical Center and Broward Health shared their early experiences during an Oct. 10 webinar hosted by the Institute for Health Technology Transformation.

“We’ve had financial processes out there for quite some time, but it has become more of an imperative to have a visible set of analytics that allowed us to look at the financial side and connect it to the clinical,” says Peter Barnick, director of business intelligence and data integration at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward.

Big data management programs have been in place in other industries for decades and these can sometimes make healthcare’s data management programs seem small, according to Judy Hanover, healthcare research director for Framingham, Mass.-based IDC Research. The complexity and nuances of health information, often captured in unstructured formats, make management difficult. While a 2012 IDC survey showed that about half of healthcare organizations have plans to implement new or expand existing analytics programs, more than half of respondents stated they were unsure what “big data” means.

“A lot of systems that providers have in place aren’t set up to do real-time or even near real-time analysis and don’t quite have the computing horsepower where big data technologies can come into play,” Hanover said.

Some are getting there. Mary Carroll Ford, MBA, vice president and chief information officer of the Lakeland, Fla.-based community hospital, said her organization uses real-time information monitoring capabilities to manage employees and reduce emergency department turnover times, generating both clinical and business benefits.

“In the past, we would tell a nurse manager they were over budget because they had too many nurses on the floor,” Ford said. “When you tell someone that six weeks after the event, there’s nothing they can really do to change that.” Now, Lakeland can tell immediately if there are too many providers working in one area and redirect them where they are needed. Lakeland also has implemented a process to see how changes in workflow or medical equipment used are affecting quality measures. For instance, if the organization began using a new catheter in May, Ford would like to see a corresponding reduction in urinary tract infection rates in the next few months.

So far, there is little concrete evidence outside of anecdotes to determine the true value of analytics programs.

Broward doesn’t have data to show that its analytics program is improving quality of care, according to Barnick. That doesn’t mean he believes organizations should shy away from the challenge. “I really hate to give that answer because I don’t want to dissuade anybody from doing the work. It’s something I believe is well worth the effort.”