Declutter your Clinical Data: The Art of EHR Report Rationalization for Better Decisions

30 petabytes. That’s the volume of healthcare data we generate annually. As market trends dictate, this data deluge will not stop any time soon. It will only skyrocket from here. This is where things get tricky.

Many care providers are already facing multiple reports with redundant or irrelevant information, which hampers efficient decision-making. Such data overload is inefficient since staff wastes precious time sifting through redundant information rather than directly caring for the patient. In addition, varying reporting methodologies, such as duplicative or inconsistent coding practices combined with an absence of reusable logic, create fragmented data that raises the risk of errors and delays and ultimately threatens the patients.

Inconsistent reporting also has financial consequences. The financial investment necessary to handle the chaotic reporting landscape is too high. This is a tremendous burden on healthcare organizations, with little return on investment in terms of improved outcomes.

Report rationalization can help care providers manage redundancies and harness the power of data to enter the next level of care delivery and operations. Report rationalization is a strategic and systemic approach to making the report understandable by giving the user better facilities at the data level, aggregating footprints for reporting support, and ensuring the value gained from the reports is consistent and self-improving.

Common EHR Standardization Strategies

Taming the data deluge for your healthcare organization requires a strategic approach to report rationalization. The common strategies take two approaches toward attaining a streamlined, efficient reporting environment: "Migrate First, Then Rationalize" and "Rationalize First, Then Migrate." The correct answer depends on your circumstances, available resources, and organizational priorities.

Strategy 1: Migrate First, Then Rationalize (The "Big Bang" Approach)

Proponents of this approach suggest that businesses should first change their existing reports to a new cloud platform and only then rationalize them.

Advantages:

• Simplifies the technology landscape and only then reaches the target state reporting platform.
• Engages business teams post-migration in rationalizing and optimizing the number of reports to ensure minimum disruptions to BAU.
• Ensures base report volumes are supported during the migration process.

Disadvantages:

• Delayed realization of benefits from report rationalization.
• Potentially higher initial costs due to migrating more reports.
• Risk of migration to a less efficient system, negating rationalization benefits.
• Missed opportunities to simplify reporting processes.

Strategy 2: Rationalize First, Then Migrate (The "Phased Approach")

This strategy prioritizes assessing and optimizing existing reports before migrating to a new platform. It involves analyzing report usage, redundancy, and data quality.

Advantages:

• Analyzes reports from the beginning to identify rationalization opportunities.
• Engages business teams in rationalizing critical reports to reduce chances of data duplication.
• Parallelly migrates reports that require minimal business involvement. These reports will be moved to the target state reporting platform.
• Creates a simplified volume of reports.

Disadvantages:

• Requires significant upfront business effort, potentially delaying the project.
• Risk of analysis paralysis, leading to inefficiencies.
• Potential for resistance to change from business users.
• Wasted efforts if technology migration is difficult or fails to support changes.

The optimal strategy depends on several factors, including your organization's size, technical capabilities, budget constraints, stakeholder willingness to engage, and tolerance for initial disruption. A careful assessment of your unique circumstances is essential to ensure the most effective approach.

Proven Framework to Ensure the Success of These Strategies

While the decision to migrate first or rationalize first is a critical strategic choice, the effectiveness of either approach depends on a robust and well-defined framework. This framework forms a structured approach that ensures a comprehensive, systematic, and ultimately successful report rationalization initiative. A flexible framework applicable to various organizational and technological contexts consists of five primary stages:

Stage 1: Comprehensive Report Inventory and Functional Assessment

This should include, at a minimum, the name of the report, the purpose, the data sources, the frequency of generation, the users, and any metadata associated with each report. It is upon this detailed inventory that rationalization is built. An essential part of this stage is categorizing the reports into functional areas, including some or all of the following: patient demographics, clinical documentation, financial, quality, and operations. This functional classification helps identify redundant or duplicative reports.

Stage 2: Common Data Source Analysis

Next, identify and analyze familiar data sources across various reports. This analysis unfolds opportunities for consolidation. For instance, if many reports extract information from the same table, they can be consolidated or made more lean, resulting in increased efficiency and reduced redundancy. It is important to depict an end-to-end vision of your organization's data assets to include opportunities for optimized data

Stage 3: Technical Assessment and Redundancy Identification

A thorough technical analysis of the reports available must be undertaken. This includes a detailed analysis of the report code, layouts, prompts, filters, and parameters for redundancy, inefficiency, and possible improvement opportunities. Automated resources can greatly assist in the process and uncover undetected redundancies. This stage is critical in ascertaining whether reports are no longer required or obsolete

Stage 4: Rationalization and Prioritization

Once the evaluation is done, classify all reports based on value and necessity. Reports are often rated in three categories:

1. Fully Rationalized
2. Partially Rationalized
3. Not Rationalized

This ranking will keep the most valuable and indispensable reports while eliminating redundant or superfluous reports.

Stage 5: Implementation and Training

This final stage would mean implementing the rationalization plan—consolidating or eliminating reports, modifying existing reports, and developing reports as required—and inclusive user training for all stakeholders to use this new reporting structure effectively.

This structured framework outlines the best approach, minimizing risks and maximizing the opportunities of report rationalization. Whether you migrate first or rationalize first, this framework can always be your foundation for success.

Benefits of the Framework

Implementing a comprehensive framework, as outlined, would significantly benefit many areas of your healthcare organization. While streamlining your reporting ecosystem could unlock the potential in data, improvements begin in efficiency, decision-making, and overall operational performance. Some key advantages are as follows:

• Enhanced Business User Experience: A rationalized reporting system offers clinicians and administrators timely access to accurate, relevant, and insightful data. This empowers them to make data-driven decisions, improving patient care and operational efficiency. Reduced complexity translates to less time spent searching for information and more time focused on critical tasks.
• Reduced Maintenance Overhead: By eliminating redundant reports and streamlining processes, you significantly reduce the cost and effort of maintaining your reporting infrastructure. This includes freeing up IT resources and decreasing the financial burden of managing a vast reports inventory.
• Improved Decision-Making: Access to accurate, comprehensive data supports better, more informed decisions across various areas, including patient care, resource allocation, financial planning, and strategic decision-making.
• Enhanced Processes and Standards: The framework establishes standardized processes for report creation and management, ensuring data consistency, quality, and reliability. This leads to greater efficiency and improved data governance.
• Stronger Consumption Governance: Through careful planning and execution, the rationalization process establishes a controlled reporting environment. This reduces the creation of redundant or unnecessary reports, ensuring all reports serve a clear purpose and contribute to organizational goals.
• Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The long-term cost savings resulting from improved efficiency, reduced maintenance, and enhanced data utilization represent a significant return on investment for the report rationalization initiative. This includes direct cost savings and indirect benefits of improved operational effectiveness.

Closing Thoughts

While the healthcare data deluge is inevitable, it still should not prevent organizations operating in this industry from braving the storm and maneuvering their way through the chaotic reporting landscape that results from it. Remember, the journey to a data-driven future in healthcare starts with action. It can change how your organization approaches data management by assessing the current reporting ecosystem, choosing the most appropriate strategy, and enacting the framework outlined above. This commitment will give your clinicians and administrators the information to make informed decisions, resulting in better patient outcomes and a more sustainable and efficient healthcare system. But realize, after all, that the benefits—added insights in data, reduced costs in operations, better decision-making—are not just theoretical but should be tangible, impacting your bottom line directly and, more importantly, the quality of care you deliver. The time to act is now.