Written by Lisa MacKenzie, Dashboard Manager
Excel is a powerful tool for storing data however it can be very difficult to analyze the mass amounts of information stored in an intuitive way. Many individuals and organization find themselves spending countless hours manually producing tables and charts in excel. Unfortunately, once these figures have been completed and exported to a reporting platform within excel the data seems to be out-of-date due to this lengthy process. An innovative technology to replace excel reporting to better manage data is through Dashboarding. Dashboarding brings an interactive and visually stimulating way to more efficiently manage data including interactive maps, charts, and graphics, with the capability to view and analyze real time data. Using a dashboard platform is proficient as it is web based and accessible with many mobile devices for on-demand resources to help drive administrator and clinician decisions. The instant reporting, drill downs, and automatic upload of data substantially reduces the time spent in production so that this time can be more efficiently utilized.
Dashboarding has the capability to show numerous categories depending on the needs of the organization, including items such as Evaluation and Management (E/M) bell curve analysis by specialty, scorecards for documentation accuracy, financial metrics, compliance, benchmark data, and other key performance indicators (KPI). The bell curve analysis is a great example of large amounts of data that can be simplified by using dashboards. There are drill downs to demonstrate multiple specialty groups, date parameters, office visit type, and sorting by provider with the capability to quickly connect this information to revenue.
Furthermore, dashboarding allows for interactive technologies that are not found with reporting functions in excel. For instance, the documentation accuracy ticker exhibited below allows for clinicians and administrators to get a quick view of comparison accuracy data for multiple providers within the clinic.
In addition, comparison data to Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) including staffing and practice data, total gross charges, total revenue, wRVUs trends, general production and compensation, and several other comparison data. Multiple specialties, providers and data points can be analyzed in a concise chart to help understand the variation between the month, quarter, or annual data.
Best practice standards can be identified and measurements analyzed to gage performance in an efficient way utilizing dashboards. The dashboarding process creates an interactive means of interpreting data and reduces the time spent manually working in excel charts for reporting. Dashboarding is effective because it allows for health care professionals to tell a story in an interactive way using the large amount of data to help direct decisions.