Many healthcare organizations will admit the challenge of having a clear visibility across their supply chain. So if they can’t see it, how can they manage what they can’t see? Sure they have data, most likely plenty of data, but can healthcare organizations make clear, concise, effective supply-chain decisions while drowning in data overload?

The supply chain plays a critical role in the healthy functioning of a healthcare facility. It has become increasingly important for healthcare organizations to make sense of the volumes of data that they accumulate on a daily basis. Enterprise dashboards are fast emerging as the presentation layer to deliver actionable business intelligence from the rapidly growing databases.

This Hospital Scorecard dashboard is monitoring patient length of stays, total admissions and discharge rates to assist in planning for the purchase of necessary supplies.

Why do healthcare organizations need an enterprise dashboard?

Enterprise dashboards offer a solution that helps healthcare organizations provide their information users with personalized business intelligence dashboards that convert data overload into a wealth of usable information. Users may analyze, track and drill-down into real-time dashboards. A supply chain dashboard can contain all relevant metrics for the supply chain department responsible for distribution, inventory, and logistics management. Real-time dashboards of supply chain metrics help healthcare organizations in inventory planning, project budgeting and cost savings.

Consider a major recall of pacemakers and defibrillators from a certain manufacturer. This can create a ripple effect in the entire system of a hospital. Administrators need prompt answers to – what is the daily consumption rate for the recalled units, what is the current inventory of substitute units, what is the delivery time for replenishment of substitute parts, and so on. To compound the situation, now consider the fact that to get to all the relevant data that answers these questions, you have to rely on a trained Report Writer (information gate keeper) who just happens to be on vacation. Does this sound familiar?

Enterprise dashboards provide organizations with an opportunity to bring their decision makers closer to information. Well-designed dashboards eliminate barriers between information consumers and the data they need to make timely decisions.

Most small to medium sized healthcare organizations deal with at least 3,000 line items and larger ones can have up to 25,000 line items that need to be tracked on a regular basis. This creates an enormous amount of data as you can imagine. Most materials managers find it difficult to easily put their hands around the information that they need to analyze to make the proper supply chain decisions at the right time.

Enterprise dashboards give healthcare organizations insight into their data and present it in an easy to understand, visual format. No more cumbersome spreadsheets. Visual representation in the form of dashboard technology can make the difference between information overload and information insight in the supply chain. Healthcare institutions can easily address the key performance indicators (KPIs) to manage the supply chain in such areas as inventory turn, days of supply, fill rate, distribution time, in-transit inventory, rate of damaged goods, on-time delivery, gross margin, and supply chain scorecards.

The key to creating a useful dashboard is in the customization and identification of KPIs that are most important to your supply chain division. Every organization is unique and needs to create a variety of different reports that extract their mission critical data. Each organization also has specific goals and performance objectives. An enterprise dashboard can help healthcare organizations align their data with these goals and objectives.

Dashboards give organizations the ability to display their information in a variety of ways. Once an organization decides what supply chain KPIs it needs to capture, the dashboard will pull the necessary information from the data sources and the user can customize visual appearance of the information to be the most functional display for their specific purposes. Users can create customized presentation formats, including flow charts, images, etc. They can also choose from a wide variety of options for visual presentation including pie charts, bar charts, bubble charts, configurable speedometer dials, traffic lights, and more.

This supply chain dashboard is monitoring the inventory, shipping and backlog levels within a healthcare system.

Besides rich visual presentation, dashboards help supply chain managers creative proactive checks and balances through automated alerts. Dashboards allow information viewers to set up email alerts that send emails as well as visual dashboard alerts during critical item shortages, back orders and out-of-stock situations.

When a KPI on a dashboard hits a pre-set threshold, an alert can be raised. Not only can the necessary personnel be notified, but also that user can then drill-down and do root-cause analysis and quickly take action. Traditionally, the supply chain professional would have to wait for a spreadsheet to be emailed and reviewed. At this point the information is outdated and may even be irrelevant.

Dashboards can also help to reduce purchase order errors. Materials management employees can automate inventory tracking and order processes to improve inventory data accuracy without adding staff. With insight into the inventory supply chain, healthcare organizations can easily identify where products are in the supply chain process and update departments on delivery status.

The visionaries and early adopters of technology within healthcare have started to see their payback from dashboards. Organizations such as California Heart Center Foundation, Bridgepoint Health Hospitals and Nemours are already reaping the benefits from enterprise dashboards. Moreover, supply chain vendors have begun to incorporate dashboards into their offerings. If you are a healthcare provider, it’s time that you assess the benefits of dashboards across your organization.