News Feature | September 18, 2014

CHIME Members Say Analytics Are Top Priority

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Analytics Top Priority At CHIME

A survey of CHIME senior IT executives revealed analytics as their top IT priority.

Health Catalyst, along with the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), recently conducted a survey of CHIME members which found analytics to be the highest ranked IT priority.

Of the nearly 70 executives surveyed, Health Data Management reports 54 percent chose analytics, 42 percent population health initiatives, 30 percent ICD-10, 29 percent accountable care, and 11 percent consolidation related investments. Participants could select more than one answer.

Not only were analytics the top priority for these respondents, more than 90 percent said they were either “extremely important” or “very important” to their organizations over the next on to three years.

According to a press release, when asked which healthcare trends were spurring the need for analytics, the executives answered:

  • 84 percent population health management
  • 79 percent quality improvement
  • 68 percent accountable care
  • 63 percent cost reduction
  • 54 percent better reporting
  • 17 percent research

The release notes, “When asked to rank the biggest obstacles to their adoption of analytics, survey takers ranked highest a lack of analytics expertise and resources to adopt the technology. Not surprisingly, the next biggest obstacle to analytics adoption was the large number of other IT priorities facing healthcare IT executives.”

"CHIME members serve in the front lines of a healthcare industry confronted by the most significant challenges in its history, and their focus on analytics as a key solution to those challenges is confirmation of the technology's importance," said Dan Burton, CEO of Health Catalyst. "In fact, analytics is a prerequisite for all of the major initiatives currently underway to address value-based care. Once organizations have all of their data warehoused and accessible, analytics is the core tool to help them make sense of the data and put it to work."