Leveraging business intelligence to make better decisions: Part III.

Accounts receivable and scheduling datasets have been available to medical practices since the 1990s, and discrete medical records data have become available over the past few years. But the frustrations that arose from the difficulties in reporting data grew with each keyboard stroke and mouse click. With reporting mandated to meet changing payment models, measuring quality of care and medical outcomes, practice managers must find more efficient and effective methods of extracting and compiling the data they have in their systems. Taming the reporting beast and learning to effectively apply business intelligence (BI) tools will become an expected managerial proficiency in the next few years. Practice managers' roles are changing quickly, and they will be required to understand the meaning of their practice's data and craft ways to leverage that data toward a strategic advantage.