HCOs need data to make informed decisions, and all aspects of processing data require people with specific skillsets. But supply is not keeping up with demand.
Why should you outsource one of the most in-demand jobs in health care?
When making decisions in today’s acute unscheduled care setting, emergency departments (EDs) need experts with a particular type of talent, that is, a hybrid skillset with expertise that bridges the gap between knowing what is relevant for users and making it happen technically. This can ensure that the analytics directly enables decision-making that is tied to actions with the highest impact.
Increased Demand for Data Analysts
The tech boom of the past couple of decades has left HCOs with more data than they’re prepared to handle. The need to process it has resulted in an increased demand for data analytics skills.
The World Economic Forum, in its 2016 report “The Future of Jobs,” pointed out that data analysts will become increasingly more important in all industries by 2020 and beyond. According to the report, the executives who responded to the survey expected the demand for data analysts to increase, “because they will need help making sense of all of the data generated by technological disruptions.”
Data Scientist Versus Data Analyst
Both data scientists and data analysts are in short supply. What exactly is the difference between the two? “Data scientist” is a broader term, encompassing such tasks as working with unstructured data derived from multiple sources, providing predictive modeling, and similar tasks that involve working with raw data. Data analysts focus on business applications that provide business and organizational insights for data-driven decision-making.
But what’s truly needed are tweeners, or people who are experts both in data science and in the target business. Unfortunately, they’re hard to find. There’s a significant gap between what IT and data scientists know and what is required to deliver truly valuable information within clinical specialties and across departments.
For example, an ED cannot achieve superior turn-around times (TATs) and patient satisfaction if there are persistent bottlenecks for inpatient beds and ancillary services. Analytics can enable conversations between departments, leading to creative ways to reduce TATs. In short, tweeners translate user needs into what the ideal information flow needs to be so the hard-core data integration and algorithm development done by data scientists hits the mark.
There’s clear evidence of growing demand for data and analytics professionals, including tweeners, due to increases in data generation and device connectivity, easier access to data, and the need for data-driven decision-making. HCOs need data to make informed decisions, and all aspects of processing data require people with specific skillsets. But supply is not keeping up with demand.
Filling the Data Science Talent Gap
Whether you need to augment existing staff or you’re lacking experts in both areas, d2i can fill the gap with our purpose-built Performance Analytics Application, which can help HCOs figure out how to reduce ED crowding, reduce TATs, and improve patient satisfaction while increasing profitability.
Outsourcing your HCO’s data analytics is cost-effective, with immediate ROI. It can give you access to a higher level of expertise in data acquisition and management, as well as domain specialization in emergency and hospital medicine. By outsourcing your analytics, you can count on a quicker turnaround, from problem identification to corrective actions. d2i can do all the heavy lifting, and our solutions require little upfront cost and no new infrastructure. Best of all, they can be implemented in a matter of weeks.
To learn more about how our solutions can help improve the quality of your ED services and the quality of your data, contact us for more information, or to request a 30-minute demo.