Business intelligence (BI)—the process of turning data into actionable information—is a critical capability in the healthcare industry. Business intelligence enables healthcare entities to measure, analyze, and improve across multiple areas of organizational performance.

Most healthcare entities have a business intelligence strategy, but many struggle to get the greatest value from their clinical, operational, and financial data. They may have robust data and the tools for analytic enhancement, but without an interface that facilitates data sharing across departments and job roles and an enterprise-wide commitment to integrating data with business process, they are in effect leaving money on the table. Today’s most competitive healthcare organizations are data-driven. Innovative use of BI in healthcare can help organizations take steps to get a better return on investment (ROI) from its data.

This article, abridged from a Milliman white paper on this subject, was first published in 2012 Actuarial Software Now, a special section of Contingencies.