Why is healthcare data so messy for business

analysts?George J. Mount

Healthcare is probably the most complex industry...

...and working with healthcare data is similarly complex.

So what makes healthcare data so difficult to work with?

Here are my observations… please leave yours in the

comments!

My aim is to blog about how Excel can assist in these “pain points…” with the ultimate end

being an online video course.

1. Data rarely talks

Think of all the data sources a healthcare manager needs…

•Payroll•Financials•Clinical•Keep going…

Rarely are all these sources integrated in healthcare.

It is left to the analyst to build schemas, define granularity, and identify primary keys…

When very few analysts have

learned the basics of database

administration.

2. Scheduling and payroll

Payroll is the most significant operating expense of any hospital.

How do we keep operations tight while providing the best coverage?

Especially when clinical statistics are divorced from payroll…

With no data integration, you are often left using paper charts for on-call calendars and so forth.

The analyst is then left gathering these from various departments in the hopes of analyzing staffing.

3. Messy data exports

Many healthcare data systems export data in legacy, user-unfriendly formats.

Data cleaning and preparation thus become very important skills for the healthcare analyst.

Your turn! What makes healthcare data so messy?

Your feedback will help me make the best training possible.

Where to find me

• georgejmount.com• LinkedIn: @gjmount

• NEW! Course on Excel for career development:

“Hired with Excel: What Every Analyst Needs to Know”

Resources• Dan LesSuer,

"5 Reasons Healthcare Data is So Difficult and Unique to Measure"