Recent survey-based research has found that many hospitals and health systems struggle to realize the ROI or achieve the desired outcomes from their technology and AI investments.
Over half of organizations (53%) say they are challenged to utilize data to drive decision-making and strategy. The reasons vary. Some healthcare organizations don't have strong financial frameworks, while others buy technology solutions first and then look for problems to solve.
During an interactive session at Becker's 14th Annual Meeting, three managing directors from Huron Consulting shared insights and best practices for leveraging analytics and AI to empower financial transformation in healthcare: Martin Bloomenkranz, KC Loder and Elaine Yao.
Five key takeaways were:
- To realize the benefits of AI and automation, organizations must be on the path to financial maturity. Data analytics and the resulting insights can enable faster decision-making and accurate evaluation of growth opportunities. A prerequisite, however, is a strong financial framework focused on governance, buy-in across the organization and a commitment to data interoperability.
"You need the right processes and governance in place to support long-term financial and capital planning. Data driven analytics and budgeting down to the department level and the service line," Ms. Yao said. "It's also essential to track and monitor, so you can course correct."
- Alignment of existing service lines and project portfolios with the organizational strategy is essential. If this doesn't exist, teams must rethink their time and budget allocations to ensure they are balancing the risk associated with new opportunities with what they know is working. This allows health systems to grow within their existing structure, while experimenting with new business opportunities.
"As you look at budgets, how do they feed into your overall capital strategy and long-term capital plan?" Ms. Yao asked. "If you have a central office or other architecture to marry operations, strategy and capital planning, you can start achieving systemness."
- Organizations need a vision for analytics, AI and automation. When a hospital or health system adopts analytics and AI, they can't just do it for data's sake. They must have a strategy that accomplishes two things — the first is to help the health system understand how to run the business, and the second is to identify growth opportunities.
"We start with a vision," Mr. Loder said. "What is your organization's view of strategy and what are you trying to accomplish in the long term? Based on that, you can ensure that tools, people and processes will deliver on that."
- Automation and AI used in tandem can empower faster and more accurate decision-making. Although a wide range of tools can drive a wide range of outcomes, organizations must select the AI and automation solutions that align with their goals and maturity level.
"Using natural language processing and AI to ask which service lines we should be investing in and why based on margin, projected population needs and shifts in consumer demographics is an exciting beginning," Mr. Bloomenkranz said. "It lets our customers act more quickly, which is the name of the game in today's quickly shifting healthcare environment."
- Establishing a financial transformation framework enables organizations to evaluate future opportunities. This includes governance, control, line of sight over operational performance, and alignment of data across systems.
"When applying tools, strategy and financial government frameworks together, if you do one or two alone, you might have a successful project, but it ultimately won't move the needle in the ways you want," Mr. Bloomenkranz said. "You need all the right foundational elements in place."