Esther Apter cited as expert on Health IT Dashboards in HME Business
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Final article available here: https://hme-business.com/articles/2016/05/01/hme-dashboard.aspx
1. Please state your name, title and company.
Esther Apter
CEO
Medforce Technologies, Inc.
2. How would you define a dashboard view? Is this a feature that comes with most HME business software programs? Are they always customizable?
A dashboard is a summary of a company’s performance presented in a visual manner that gives an at-a-glance view into the key metrics of success. It is a real-time snapshot of the most important current activities. As business analytics becomes more important as a tool for success, you see many (but not all) software providers adding them to their software. There are also some programs, including Medforce’s CommandCenter, that provide the ability to pull data from multiple software to provide a single source for your analytics needs.
Almost all dashboards come with some default presets, and some have customizable dashboards. But it’s not customization that is the most important attribute. The most important attribute is the ability to drill down on the dashboard and easily see what is driving the results. If you get a dashboard view that tells you that there are thousands of outstanding orders and there is no easy way to dive into what is feeding those numbers, who is responsible, and where in the process a problem is happening, the dashboard is pretty useless. Just having the dashboard numbers alone doesn’t do you very much good.
The dashboard is just a set of graphics that help you identify when there are problems, and when things are going well. It’s the data behind the dashboard that assists in making better decisions to power positive change. What matters most is how you investigate apparent issues. If you have to leave the dashboard and pull together ad-hoc reports to try to recreate a problematic result, the dashboard is not helpful. When we built our CommandCenter business process management platform, we made sure you could click through any chart and find the exact supporting information you would need to understand the drivers of performance.
3. What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that a providers should be monitoring? What are the essential indicators that should be on every HME executive’s dashboard and why?
From a strategic point of view, executives should be following the metrics that drive cash flow, efficiency and growth. If you’re not monitoring these three things, you won’t have a finger on the pulse of your profitability.
The actual KPIs depend on the company and the department you are monitoring. Some metrics HME executives should monitor include:
You should also monitor progress month-to-month to see if changes you are making are improving metrics over time.
4. Please describe the KPIs you mentioned and what indicates good or bad performance in regard to those KPIs?
While a few metrics are universal, such as how many claims can be followed up on in an hour, most metrics are personal to each company. One company may decide that 10 referrals in a day are ideal and another will be happy with one or two. Establishing a baseline first is important in determining what your target metrics should be. This underlines the importance of tracking progress month-to-month and having the insights needed to make proper process refinements that will fuel your goals.
5. How often should these KPIs be monitored? Do some need closer attention than others?
Some KPIs should be monitored daily and some should be monitored monthly. For a dashboard, nothing less often than monthly makes sense. While quarterly and annual reporting is important to guiding a company, it is not what dashboards are intended for. Dashboards should enable you to get into the details of the real-time activities to guide daily decision making.
6. When software shopping, what dashboard features should providers look for? For example, customization, cloud-based, mobile view of dashboard, etc.
The number one feature we recommend is the ability to drill down easily through the dashboard to analyze the numbers and understand what is driving them. This is in service of ensuring proper action can be taken based on the information received.
The priority of most features will depend on the HME company or even the individual roles. We find that for our clients who don’t spend a lot of time in front of a desk, perhaps due to travel, having mobile capabilities is important. Customization is important depending on what kind of KPIs are critical to the corporate strategy and whether or not they come standard in the existing software program.
The overall visual layout is important, but don’t get too enticed by slick designs if the content isn’t helpful. Don’t waste your time with dashboard elements you aren’t going to use or are not relevant to your corporate strategy. Dashboards are supposed to be summaries of underlying data, so avoid cluttered and difficult to read graphics. Ensure the data reflects performance within an appropriate context and gives you the usability you need to make informed decisions.
7. What are your top three tips to HME providers for using their HME dashboard for business success?
Final article available here: https://hme-business.com/articles/2016/05/01/hme-dashboard.aspx
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