Business Intelligence & Baking Soda

On the shelf at the grocery store, baking soda is just plain boring. Chances are you’ve passed it by a hundred times and not thought a thing about it.

In fact, baking soda may only really matter to you once every few years, such as when you are stung by a bee. Last time that happened to me, I rushed for the baking soda to help reduce the pain.

But this is only one of literally hundreds of uses of baking soda. Many people have no idea how useful and practical baking soda can be.

Some fun examples: you can use baking soda to shine tarnished silver, brush your teeth, and clean bathtubs and sinks. You can use it to remove light oil spills and deodorize the fridge. You can use it to cook fluffier omelets, create antacid for heartburn, and repel insects from coming into your house.

Baking soda is like business intelligence (BI). On the shelf, it’s usually just passed by, and it may be thought of only every once in a while for a customary, known use.

But the potential uses and applications of BI are high in number and practicality, especially in healthcare. The potential lift and impact BI can have on the healthcare industry goes far beyond analyzing financial metrics or reporting on business operations. Healthcare BI is about finding new discoveries, identifying more effective ways to reduce suffering, and correlating patterns for medicines that deliver better outcomes. It’s about preventing sepsis through real-time data alerts and making connections to new care patterns that save lives. We have all the right in the world to refer to BI in healthcare as point-of-care analytics and clinical intelligence.

I’m very optimistic about the future. Never before has technology advancement and information accessibility provided such inroads and opportunities.

Against that outlook, though, let’s be honest: the potential uses and impact of BI in healthcare are not easily achieved. This is tough stuff. This is hard work. It requires time, resources, and persistence—and a lot of iterative learning. Unlike baking soda, there’s not an Internet site that gives simple instructions for hundreds of uses.

At KLAS we work to measure and shine a light on what’s working and making a difference from the customers’ eyes. Like with baking soda, some uses and applications of BI are not well known, but new care and payment models in healthcare are sparking innovation and creativity. Take a few minutes to see how customers evaluate their vendors—and what new and creative use cases for BI are unfolding.