Data Warehousing in Healthcare - Article Example

 Data Warehousing in Healthcare Outline I. Overview and objectives of the technology II. Manufacturers of the technology III. Operational requirements a. Hardware b. Software c. Network d. Information IV. The requirements for maintenance and support V. Important stakeholders VI. Business processes VII. Value/Benefits VIII. Opportunities for improving the technology a. Business b. Technical Declaration I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment/examination. I further pledge that I have not copied any material from a book, article, the Internet, or any other source except where I have expressly cited the source. Signature ________________ Date: ____________­­­____ Overview and Objectives of the Technology In the past, many organizations maintained complex filing systems and information repositories in order to maintain the organizations history and to make it easy to retrieve information whenever a need arose. This made it possible for organizations to learn from past trends, to present evidence in court hearings, and to keep an accurate record of the events that took place in its premises[Mur07]. The need to store information for both historical and strategic reasons inspired many companies to acquire IT-based infrastructure to maintain the records. The main reason for this was the increased efficiency that IT-based systems brought to the organizations. The idea of pooling a large amount of information to allow for research and reorganization refers to data warehousing. The concept is as old as the ancient libraries. However, the tools for data storage are no longer large tomes of papyrus and paper, but IT based databases. Manufacturers of the Technology The setting up of data warehouses is not a preserve of any specific company. In fact, data warehouses have components made by different manufacturers. A consultant, usually a systems engineer, designs, and sets up a data warehouse for different clients based on their needs[Hya07]. In this sense, a data warehouse is not a product, but a system designed using components from different manufacturers. To illustrate this point, a data warehouse resembles an engineering product designed by an engineer but constructed using equipment made by other manufacturers. Operational Requirements a. Hardware The physical components of the data warehouse include computers, servers, and network equipment such as routers, hubs, and cabling. These components provide the physical interface that represents the data warehouse. Depending on the type of data warehouse, the equipment will have ratings that match the needs of the institution. Other elements that constitute the hardware for the data warehouse include power supply equipment such as Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) units, power cables, power adapters and surge protection devices. These elements ensure that the warehouse has reliable power supply. b. Software The software that operates data warehouses is largely database software. Depending on whether the database is internet based or not, the type of software used to run it differs. Web based databases that form the core of the data warehouses normally use PHP or MySQL coding. The most common database software used in data warehouses includes the Oracle database software and the popular Microsoft Access for smaller data warehouses[Rot09]. c. Network When it comes to networking, there are three options for a data warehouse. The first one is a standalone computer that has database software operated by a single person at a time , this option is useful in very small healthcare facilities The second one is a Local Area Network (LAN), which allows users within a reasonably small geographical area to access the database. The next type is the Wide Area Network (WAN) which exceeds the primary boundary of the organization and allows remote excess. In a sense, the internet is a Wide Area Network (WAN) that supports global access. d. Information The fourth operational requirement for a database is information. In fact, a data warehouse primarily deals with information. The three operations possible in a data warehouse are data input, data archiving and data processing to extract information. Data warehouses provide the users an opportunity to interrogate existing data to get new ideas about how to handle existing and emerging challenges. The Requirements for Maintenance and Support The requirements of a data warehouse for maintenance and support solely depends on the complexity of the data warehouse. In small warehouses, the database maintenance is not a specific job. Regular computer and network maintenance functions are sufficient for its optimal operations. On the other hand, large data warehouses, the type designed by systems engineers, require troubleshooting from time to time to rid it of bugs. The maintenance engineers handle the work as a complete job in itself. The operation of such data warehouses may require training of the employees of the organization on how to access and interrogate the data in the data warehouse. Important Stakeholders There are three categories on important stakeholders when it comes to data warehouses in the healthcare industry. The first category is the patients. The data warehouse primarily serves to keep patient records, and vendor records that form part of the inputs towards care. The second class of stakeholders is the knowledge workers. It includes the physicians, the specialists, the nurses, pharmacy staff and the accounts and procurement personnel. The third class of stakeholders is the maintenance personnel. In a large healthcare facility, there may be a dedicated IT department handling the issues relating to the data warehouse. On the other hand, smaller facilities chose to have a technician on call to help if the need arises. Business Processes Data warehouse form the backbone of strategic planning processes. By interrogating the data in the archives, strategic planning teams can glimpse the trends and patterns in the business processes of the healthcare facility. Strategic planning calls for in-depth understanding of the operating trends to allow the planners to extrapolate the possible future of the facility. Secondly, data warehouses provide healthcare facilities with the ability to detect outbreaks and pandemics. This occurs when the facility implements policies that allow it to interrogate the database for telltale signs of disease outbreaks[DOH11]. In this sense, the facility benefits by avoiding unnecessary costs associated with treatment of patients because they can test for the presence of the disease quickly when a patient arrives. If this does not happen, then the facility may have to conduct many tests to determine what a patient is suffering from. Value/Benefits A data warehouse provides two key benefits to a healthcare facility. The first one is that it provides the facility with a source of primary data relating to all aspects of its operations. The benefit of this data source is that the facility can decide to analyze it for trends relating to any aspect of its operations to improve its operations. These trends, when discovered, provide opportunities to improve the quality of healthcare at the facility thereby benefiting both the facility and the patients. The second benefit of running a data warehouse is that it improves the decision making process of all the knowledge workers at the facility. This comes about because data warehouses integrate information from all corners of the facility. Any knowledge worker with access can use it to increase their understanding of the operations of the hospital thereby leading to increased work efficiency. Opportunities for Improving the Technology a. Business The integrity of the data that users put into the warehouse determines the usefulness of the information generated from it later on. A healthcare facility that implements a data warehouse needs to ensure that it trains its staff well on how to enter data into the warehouse. In this sense, there is a clear business opportunity to for such a facility to undertake training programs for staff from other facilities that plan to start using a data warehouse. b. Technical The main benefits of data warehouses rely on the robustness of the interrogation process. Microsoft Access allows users to generate reports based on specific elements of the data stored. However, it does not allow users to compute information unless it first exported to other programs. In this sense, there is a clear opportunity from software developers to bridge this gap to allow for searchable databases that allow for computations. References Mur07: , (Murthy, 2007), Hya07: , (Hyatt, 2007), Rot09: , (Rothkopf, 2009), DOH11: , (DOH, 2011), Read More