Lessons from a Hospital Business Intelligence Implementation

Organizations turn to technology as a possible solution to improve efficiency and reduce waste in their operating processes. Most of their inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement are hiding in their process level data. This experience paper describes the information needs in a hospital setting and the journey of delivering a business intelligence program that was designed to address those needs. The core focus in our business intelligence work was to deliver relevant and actionable information to the front line staff to assist them in their work. There are two story lines in this experience paper. One is about the value of information and evidence in solving business problems. The second is about the information systems methods toolbox we utilized in establishing an effective business intelligence program in an operating organization.