How to optimize your use of performance dashboards

Healthcare industry-specific dashboards emerged in the early 2000s, and strived to graphically present key performance indicators (KPIs) to hospital executives using a variety of colorful graphs, charts and other visually accessible presentation formats that made information easy to consume and interpret. Considered revolutionary at the time, first-generation dashboards essentially transformed the tedious into the stimulating, presenting critical financial data and other information to CEOs and CFOs in a clear and fresh view.

How times have changed. Today’s dashboards have become powerful financial and management tools for staff members at every level – equally important to both the hospital CEO and to those at the front lines whose actions can affect change and influence the bottom line.

Effective dashboards pull data from a variety of underlying systems, integrating information from unrelated data sources and converting it into clear and accurate measurements of performance and profitability.

The most valuable dashboards in today’s healthcare arena are personalized, interactive and flexible, providing the user a highly tailored view of the exact information needed at a precise moment – rom an at-a-glance overview of the day’s financial or operational scenario to bigger picture trending, forecasting and automated, color-coded alerts.

Selecting the right dashboard for your organization
Here’s what to look for when considering the next-generation dashboard for your organization.
Can the dashboard be personalized? Don’t get suckered in by a pretty graph or chart – no matter how attractive the screen looks, if it doesn’t contain data pertaining to you (or your department and its overall performance), it’s useless. The fact is everyone in your organization has different information needs at different times of the day. Some decision makers want to see high-level key indicators that will inform but not overwhelm. These KPIs give an overview of what is going on in the hospital at the beginning of each day.

What are the headlines for the day? What are the top ten issues of the day, and which of those are affecting the organization? How will these issues affect the day’s meetings, interactions and decision-making? These daily headlines, much like those in a newspaper, create awareness about a given topic, and are designed to help the executive think about how to best make related decisions. Likewise, there are people within your organization who require the details behind the summary level graphs. These users must have the ability to drill down into the information before making critical decisions. Additional data might show how trends and performance are interacting with the hospital’s plans and projections, and provide supporting information to help a user to instantly understand the issue or issues at hand. Personalized views of every dashboard user’s “daily reality” is what will best serve that person’s department or area of responsibility – at every level of the organization.

Also unique to next-generation dashboards is the ability deliver information in the way that is most meaningful, reliable and useful to the user. Many organizations require employees to take personality tests, such as Myers-Briggs, which measure how potential employees prefer to process information. Similarly, today’s dashboards tailor data delivery to suit individual needs, taking into consideration how one prefers to process information and delivering a personalized view: Pie chart or line chart? Graphs or bars? Words or numbers? In the end, the user – not the dashboard’s software designer – decides the format.

Can the dashboard alert users to critical situations?
The Department of Homeland Security was on to something when it enacted its color-coded alerts at airports and train stations around the country, raising the awareness of millions of travelers. Similarly, a dashboard with a color-coded alert system raises awareness among staff members concerning urgent situations, helping them resolve issues quickly and proactively. Depending on the dashboard system, alerts can range from a potentially negative trend requiring attention to an opportunity to fix a pending disaster. 

New dashboards are programmed with automated escalation triggers, and allow users to manage their alerts – again, personalizing the information in meaningful ways. The best dashboards notify the appropriate person of deviations from their work goals or the organization’s plan. By knowing ahead of time that a part of the organization is trending off course, users gain a critical time advantage for modifying direction and improving overall business decisions.
 
Does the dashboard put information into context?
The traditional approach to dashboards has been to provide a user with a visually attractive rendering of numbers that can also be obtained from system reports. At first glance, the dashboard looks great. The traditional approach isn’t good enough any more. A dashboard’s charts and graphs must put the information in context – what do the numbers really mean? What is the best practice measure? Are we above or below expectations? Is the trend accelerating or slowing down? At the risk of seeming simplistic, there are four critical ways to look at a number in a key indicator: Is it over the target number, or not? Is it under the target number, or not? Once a user knows the target figure, s/he can click through the dashboard to review drilled-down data that put the information into the context of the entire organization. New dashboards also automatically trend each key performance indicator, either by using preconfigured trending algorithms or using metrics measurements created by your organization.             

Can the dashboard be used by all levels of staff?
First-generation dashboards were largely designed for the executive team. While the C-level certainly needs a daily top-line read on the organization’s key performance indicators, it’s critically important that the information also is delivered to those who are literally dealing with the transactions on a daily basis – and who can affect change. All levels of staff, from senior management to line management and staff employees, need analytical tools and information to champion their particular causes on a daily basis. Be sure your dashboard is readily available to all levels of users needing access to critical business information, not just senior managers.

Does the dashboard require elaborate IT configurations?
As a practical matter, be sure any dashboard you are considering works within your organization’s existing IT infrastructure, and requires minimal technical investment or resources for installation, deployment or management. Users should be able to personalize views, change system configurations, and get data out of the system without IT support. Many dashboards have a “hidden” cost of ownership because they require IT involvement at every step. The dashboard should not cause security issues, require special firewall changes, nor alter system configurations. The dashboard should use current technology and require little IT involvement.

Next Steps for Next-Generation Dashboards
With all the new customization features on today’s performance management dashboards, new rules apply to maximize their performance.   

Avoid information overload. Creating a whole new set of metrics for a hospital can be challenging and fun, but many organizations take this task too far, allowing the project to run out of control by assigning far too many key performance indicators, thereby creating a tool that is no longer useful. Successful projects tend to use a phased approach. Phases can vary in size but should not take more than a few months to deploy – ideally no more than two months.   
Choose metrics with care. The most useful dashboards are focused on KPIs that are “actionable.” Actionable means that action can be taken if the KPI is off target. By comparison, capitalized items on the overall hospital budget may be very important, but don’t usually require daily intervention, and are therefore minimally actionable. On the other hand, daily cash collected and the associated KPIs are very actionable. Denials can be worked, accounts can be worked, coding issues can be fixed, and many other leading indicators can be monitored to make sure cash collections are on track.

Consensus on which measures to use and how they are used is critical to the success of the dashboard. Measures should take into consideration the entire organization, based on both internal and external factors, and must relate to the overall strategic plan of the organization. Be warned though, strategic KPIs must be brought down to earth so that those involved in the organization can impact the results. Otherwise, the dashboard and associated KPIs become just another executive dashboard.

Check the trigger points on alerts. Alerts can be a double-edged sword – either by cautioning the user to a critical situation or by creating a “sky-is-falling”

environment that eventually diminishes the alert’s value by filling up the user’s Inbox with waves of “alerts.” A personalized dashboard allows the user to create trigger points that are meaningful, and that don’t leave the reader trying to balance true notification with spam. Too often, users simply turn off the alerts, which means the alerts aren’t helping. Alerts are intended to help manage by exception. Therefore, the system must be easily configured. The system should also take timing into account. For example, an alert may go out on Monday, the fix takes place Monday afternoon, but the payer takes three days to fix the issue. The user won’t want to see the alert in the meantime. If the payer doesn’t respond in three days, the dashboard ideally sends an alert. In the meantime, you avoid spamming the user.

Get trained. Like most information-based technology, dashboards are only as good as the knowledge and training of their users. The most valuable dashboards have best practices already built into the system, and can have a positive impact on your entire organization – but only with the proper training. When researching new systems, make sure your vendor offers complete educational training and support to all staff levels.