CERTIFIED SPECIALIST

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Study Guide

Certified Specialist Business Intelligence

Table of Contents

Course 1: Understanding the Industry……………………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Course 2: The Business of Providing Healthcare Services………………………………………….……………………………..8

Course 3: The Discipline of Business Intelligence……………………………………………………………………………………11

Course 4: Business Intelligence Technical Skills……………………………………………………………………………………..14

Course 5: Business Intelligence Analytical and Quantitative Skills………………………………………………………….17

Course 6: Relationship, Change Management and Consulting Skills……………………………………………………….21

Certified Specialist Business Intelligence

Course 1: Understanding the Industry

Introduction: This module provides an overview of the changing healthcare industry for the healthcare

business intelligence consultant. The topics discussed include healthcare service delivery components,

healthcare delivery environment, healthcare services in relation to the health continuum, reform and

change in healthcare delivery and the key points of leverage that analytics brings into the healthcare

industry.

Learning objectives

Section 1: Business Intelligence for the Healthcare Industry

• Define the phenomenon big data.

• Define and illustrate the applicability of and need to engage use of small data.

Section 2: Healthcare Services Delivery Components

• Recognize the internal components of healthcare service delivery.

Section 3: The Broader Healthcare Delivery Environment

• Recognize the key external influencers of the healthcare delivery environment.

Section 4: Health Services Across the Health Continuum

• Identify the three areas where misalignment between hospital components and healthcare

users may occur.

• Identify the services performed at various points on the health continuum.

Section 5: Healthcare Service Delivery and Component Independence

• Recognize what strongly influences medical care decisions in regards to supply-sensitive care.

Section 6: Reform and Change in Healthcare Delivery

• Identify foundational drivers for change that are taking place in the industry.

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Section 7: HIPAA and HITECH

• Define the terms HIPAA and HITECH.

Key points to remember:

Big data is understanding and using combinations of large data sets, both clinical and non-clinical, which

are generated by healthcare industry organizations in the course of doing business. The definition of big

data is the same in the non-healthcare industry, such as retail, communications, media, socio-

demographic and education, etc. We are coming to know this phenomenon as big data.

The internal components of healthcare service delivery system are identified on the following graphic.

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Key external influencers of the healthcare delivery environment include the following:

• Economic factors: General economy, consumer sentiments and demand elasticity, economic

development

• Social values: Diversity, social cohesion, established precedents for actions, religious preferences

• Global influences: Immigration, vacation travel, medical tourism, epidemics, terrorism, demands

for equity in medication distribution

• Population characteristics: Population demographics, socio-economics, morbidity related to

ethnic and gender groups, social morbidity

• Political climate: Elected officials, interest groups

• Technology development: Engineering sciences, information science, decision management,

mathematics

• Physical environment: Pollution, sanitation

• Demand elasticity: Market liquidity

There are three areas where a misalignment between hospital components and healthcare users may

occur:

• Lack of coordination

• Healthcare users on their own

• Service coordination

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Consumer Health Conditions:

Medical services provided on the continuum of care are identified on the graphic below.

In the case of supply-sensitive care, according to Wennberg et al. “Decisions surrounding medical

necessity are strongly influenced by capacity, rather than medical evidence or severity of illness.”

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The foundational drivers of change within the healthcare services delivery system include the following:

• Transparency

• Understanding costs

• Community-based services

• IHI Triple Aim

HIPAA = Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; HIPAA applies to organizations that are

defined as a covered entity (CE) and, now, directly to business associates as well.

• Sections of HIPAA

o Privacy Rule

o Security Rule

HITECH = Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.

• HITECH covers application of the rule:

o to both CE and individuals (i.e., employees)

o to business associate contractors

• Breach notification requirements; Accounting of PHI disclosures; Allows for sanctions for non-

compliance, including fines of up to $1.75 million and 10 years imprisonment

Elements of HIPAA and HITECH cover how PHI is handled and protected. Handling and protecting PHI is

an important aspect of BI/analytics work.

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Course 2: The Business of Providing Healthcare Services

Introduction: This course furnishes insights into the business of providing healthcare services. The topics

discussed include the basic business functions of finance, marketing and operations vis-à-vis the

business of providing healthcare services, the role of decision support, the stakeholders in the business

and their analysis, and finally, the financial processes involved in the business.

Learning objectives:

Section 1: Introduction

• Identify the fundamental purpose of engaging in analytics.

Section 2: Basic Business Functions

• Recognize the basic business functions of finance, marketing and operations.

Section 3: Changes in the Business of Providing Healthcare Services

• Recognize the dimensions of changes in the work and relationships of players in the business of

providing healthcare services.

Section 4: Stakeholder Analysis

• Recognize the steps involved in a stakeholder analysis process.

Section 5: Applying Analytics

• Recognize the three general way to access productivity.

Key points to remember:

Engaging analytics is key to understanding what is happening and to finding a path forward.

Operations is the function that meets the demand for a service or product (an output that might be

traditionally thought to be the focus of operations) by marketplace entities.

An organization must have a financing function to ensure that monetary resources are available to

conduct operations.

The marketing function provides the market interface function that is focused on understanding what

the marketplace overtly seeks, specifically needs, anticipating shifts and ensuring a strong marketplace

presence.

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The players involved in the business of providing healthcare services dimensions of change include the

following:

• Role of Nurses: CHI’s floor nurses will move beyond the traditional role of supportive bedside

care and following physician orders to an integrated role within a team-based model of care

with a focus on standardized ways of work aimed at reducing variability in practice and

improving outcomes.

• Role of Case/Care Managers: This role will be driven, in particular, by the focus on mitigating

and minimizing 30-day readmissions.

• Quality and Performance Improvement: Work will be performed in direct collaboration with

clinicians, clinical informaticists, decision-support professionals and patient access team

members.

• Operational Management Decision: There will be an increased focus on procurement sourcing

and management of suppliers and supply lines rather than on managing inventory and

processing orders.

• Decision support becomes a BI/Analytics function: The future holds the development of a of

BI/Analytics practitioner working in concert with clinical informaticists – most likely Nurse

informaticists – unlocking the big data and surfacing and sharing data.

• Internal Financial and Payer Experts: These professionals must work closely with their external

counterparts.

• Providers, Suppliers and Payers: Providers must work in concert with suppliers and payers.

The four steps involved in the stakeholder analysis process are as follows:

1. Identifying stakeholders.

2. Analyzing stakeholders’ profiles.

3. Analyzing stakeholder relationships.

4. Analyzing stakeholder participation.

The three general ways to assess productivity are:

• Partial productivity

• Partial productivity is concerned with efficiency of one particular characteristic.

• Partial productivity measures output against a specific input, e.g., services rendered/employee.

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Multifactor Productivity (MFP)

• Multifactor productivity is an index of output obtained from more than one of the resources

used in product/service production.

• MFP is the ratio of output to a group of inputs, such as labor and material.

Total Productivity

• Total productivity is the broadest measure of productivity and is concerned with the

performance of the entire organization.

• Total Productivity includes all inputs in an organization, i.e., labor, materials, overhead, capital.

• Total productivity = Revenues, profits/all inputs

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