New research shows healthcare organizations can achieve impressive gains in profitability

The newly published research on business intelligence from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), shows that healthcare organizations can achieve impressive gains in profitability, accounts receivables performance and nurse retention through the use of reporting and analytics capabilities. The research, "BI in Healthcare - A Prescription for Good Financial Health," revealed that the top performing 20% of organizations on average achieved an excess revenue (profit) margin of 9%, took 36 days to receive payment on accounts and had an annual nurse turnover rate of 10%. In comparison, the remaining 80% of survey respondents on average achieved an excess revenue (profit) margin of 1%, took 46 days to receive payment on accounts and had an annual nurse turnover rate of 14%.

"Our research found that leading organizations are much better at managing their staffing productivity, medical supply costs and their billing cycle than the others. For example, one-third of leading organizations have the ability to match the nurse staffing schedule to the current patient census, compared to only 25% of all others. That typically requires multiple data streams to be integrated, but the alternative is overstaffing, which can lead to increased overtime payments and higher temporary labor costs," said David White, senior research analyst, Aberdeen Group.