Business intelligence in healthcare organizations

The management of healthcare organizations is starting to recognize the relevance of the definition of care products in relation to management information. In the turmoil between costs, care results and patient satisfaction, the right balance is needed, and it can be found in upcoming information and communication technologies (ICT). The ICT developments are a challenge in two directions: internally towards massive data warehouses, and externally towards Internet dissemination. These new technologies deliver new solutions to old problems. This paper argues that, although the new technology has high potential, a great deal of the solution will be of an organizational nature. In four case studies, we show the spectrum from organizational solutions (changing structure and definitions, forms and procedures) to ICT solutions (changing systems and infrastructures). The main results of this study are, firstly, the notion that model bases, although theoretically existing for more than two decades, are still scarce in healthcare organizations; secondly, a big gap, both in content and in price, was noticed between decision-oriented and model-oriented systems; and, finally, the definition of terminology and the standardization were time-consuming tasks on the road to management information in the four cases studied. It is concluded that business intelligence can be the integration between the organizational and ICT components if one uses a management model and an integrated systems concept. The use of intranets and the Internet as communication channels for management information is seen as the challenge for the near future.