A common pattern plays out in many organizations. Someone discovers that the electronic health record holds a great deal of data, a few people build dashboards, and within months there are dozens of charts that few people open. The dashboards were not wrong. They simply were not tied to a decision anyone needed to make.
Operational dashboards are most valuable when leaders start with questions rather than with the data available. This is especially true in long-term care and senior living, where the record system touches clinical care, staffing, billing and compliance, and it is tempting to chart everything. Here are the questions worth answering before anyone builds anything.
Write it as a sentence: "This dashboard helps the director of nursing decide where to add staff support this week." If you cannot finish the sentence, the dashboard is not ready to be built. Each dashboard should have a primary purpose, even if it contains several measures.
A dashboard for a unit manager checked every morning differs from one for an executive reviewing monthly performance. Consider:
Which role will look at it, and how often
Whether they need to act on it or just stay informed
What level of detail suits them, such as one unit, one building or an entire portfolio
Whether they will view it on a desktop, a tablet or a wall display
Every measure should have a clear response when it moves in the wrong direction. If a number turns red and nobody knows what to do, it is decoration. Decide in advance who owns the measure, what threshold triggers attention, and what the first step is.
Disagreements about numbers can derail an entire meeting. Before building, agree on definitions:
What exactly is counted, and what is excluded
Which date applies, such as admission date, documentation date or event date
What time period is covered
When the data is considered complete, since late documentation can change figures after the fact
Which source system or report is the authority
Write definitions down and keep them where dashboard users can see them.
A dashboard exposes data quality problems, sometimes uncomfortably. Dashboards built on inconsistent documentation can mislead. Ask:
Do staff record this information consistently, in the same fields, the same way?
Are there known gaps, such as a unit that documents differently?
Who reviews the data for errors, and how often?
Fixing documentation habits may need to come before reporting. A dashboard can actually help by highlighting where entries are missing, as long as the goal is improvement, not blame.
Fewer is better. A good starting point is five to eight measures per dashboard. If you need more, consider splitting into separate views for separate audiences. Remember that every extra chart competes for attention with the important ones.
EHR data contains protected health information. Plan access controls so people see only what their role requires, and consider whether a dashboard needs resident-level detail at all. Aggregate views often meet the need with less risk. Apply the minimum necessary standard from HIPAA, and make sure that access is logged and reviewed.
Plan a review about ninety days after launch. Ask users whether they open it, whether it changed any decisions, and what is missing or unnecessary. Retire what is unused. A dashboard program that never removes anything becomes clutter.
A practical approach is to pick one department and one decision, build a single dashboard, and learn from it. Pilot with a group that is willing to give honest feedback. Expand only after the first one proves useful.
Starting with available data instead of needed decisions
Building for executives while ignoring front-line users
Skipping definitions, then arguing about numbers
Showing resident-level detail where totals would do
Never reviewing or retiring dashboards
UnityCare IT works with healthcare and senior-living teams to define measures, connect data from the record system and other sources, and build dashboards that match how the organization runs. We usually begin with a short working session on the questions above, before any charts are drawn.
Keeping PointClickCare and other EHR systems fast, connected and available.
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Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: UnityCare Technologies, 2524 N Broadway Ste 554, PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034-4172