Your financial officers may be drowning in data. The right analytics tool can be just what’s needed to turn all that data into actionable information.
The right analytics can give financial officers information to drive change that enhances performance and increases productivity.
Finance executives in the health care industry can better manage their organization’s financial performance by using advanced data-driven analytics to minimize risks, increase revenues, and reduce costs.
Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) may have enough data … in fact, they may have too much. And on top of that, they may be dealing with other major issues, including lack of collaboration among other C-level executives, a lack of skills and insights within finance teams, and lack of integration of financial and other clinical and operational data.
How do we know? They say so themselves. Two recent studies show a growing yet acknowledged need for CFOs to balance traditional tasks — including advanced data analytics into overall strategy — to not only stay afloat economically but also to enhance performance by reducing waste and increasing revenue.
The Demonstrated Need for Data Analytics for Financial Operations
A recent study, delving into the insights and workflows of health care providers, indicated a need for health care organizations (HCOs) to incorporate advanced analytics into their financial environments to generate actionable insights and successfully use data to drive decision-making. The study clearly showed that CFOs:
[…] across the care continuum both desire and require enhanced access to financial analytics and reporting that offer comprehensive, trustworthy insights into opportunities to trim waste, enhance efficiency, and make strategic decisions.
The CFOs surveyed for this study have overwhelmingly reported:
- “Increased pressure to leverage data analytics to manage operations”
- The need for their organizations to do more with their data to drive decision-making
- A lack of preparation to manage evolving payment models
- Inability to quickly adapt to the changing financial environment
- Dissatisfaction with existing performance management reporting systems
- Distrust of cost measurement solutions
- Lack of access to clean, actionable data from multiple sources
- Desire for better dashboards and visualizations
CFOs’ Top Priorities and Main Roadblocks
“Finance Redefined,” a study conducted by Longitude and released by Workday, delivers insights from more than 670 finance leaders from across the globe on today’s top leadership priorities, future, and concerns, including how finance executives can stay on top of digitization with the best available technology. According to the study, redefining the finance function falls into four categories, with some major roadblocks pinpointed in each category:
- Intelligence. One of the top concerns was “growing regulatory scrutiny,” with only 26 percent of those surveyed reporting making good use of self-service data.
- Leadership. Lack of collaboration was evident in this area, as 68 percent of finance executives said effective collaboration within the C-suite was lacking. Only 6 percent of respondents reported “seamless collaboration” within their finance teams.
- Resilience. Another top priority and roadblock is the integration of financial and nonfinancial data. Only 39 percent of all finance executives surveyed said they felt confident about managing their top risks.
- Talent. When it came to innovation, the No. 1 roadblock was the lack of “relevant skills” within teams because of the difficulty of recruiting analytics and digital talent. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they faced tough competition while hiring.
Enhancing Financial Performance with Data Analytics
Advanced analytics opens up a whole world of opportunity by enhancing performance to increase productivity, which in turn can increase revenues and reduce costs. For example, schedule optimization using advanced analytics can reduce costs, add capacity, and increase revenue by making sure the right resources are where they’re needed at the right time.
Using advanced data analytics can fill knowledge gaps by monitoring the financial impact of initiatives and projects while they’re in progress, not after the fact.
Better analytics solutions can also improve financial-planning and budget-development processes — including risk management — improving efficiency and cutting waste to help you be profitable as reimbursement shifts from volume to value. They can help by monitoring performance and closing the gap between financial planning and clinical operations, with balanced scorecards, KPI trending, and real-time insights into the key drivers of financial performance.
d2i suggests an integrated approach to reporting and monitoring, which health care CFOs can use to redefine their roles within a changing environment and ensure an efficient workflow and financial health.
We focus on cleaning and integrating data to ensure it is accurate, complete, and comprehensive, giving you analytics, you can trust. Contact d2i to learn how we can help you obtain better, more actionable data, or schedule a 30-minute demo and see why no other health care analytics tool or EHR system compares.