Can IT Save Our Hospitals?

European hospitals are working with political and administrative authorities to find ways to contain costs in the face of increasing economic and financial difficulties. At the same time, doctors and nurses are suffering from working conditions in Europe that are contributing to the shortage of key healthcare professionals. This past summer, about 70,000 doctors in Germany engaged in a 13-week strike to improve their working conditions and salaries. The strike cost hospitals up to $640,000 per day, jeopardizing many hospitals' existence.

"Saving hospital costs to invest in doctors and nurses seems to be a logical consequence for hospital directors," says Willi Janiesch, Head of the Pharma and Health Division at SAS' international headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. "German hospitals could save up to $512 million annually if they were more open to the use of strategic, analytical information technology for controlling and steering."

German University Hospital Aachen (UKA), for example, will be able to create a net value of $6.5 million within five years after implementing a BI platform. This finding from leading market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC) was recently published in a study sponsored by SAS. The UKA, one of Germany's largest hospitals with 5,700 employees, treats nearly 180,000 patients annually. The hospital was able to show a five-year return on investment of roughly 570 percent, breaking even on its initial investment after only nine months.

After implementing a business intelligence solution from SAS, the university hospital was able to:

• Optimize patient care and hospital facility use.
• Improve bill collection and increase revenue from the insurance provider.
• Reduce internal staff time and costs of external services.
• Create key performance indicators for employee satisfaction, patient satisfaction and IT support.

Download the free IDC study "SAS BI Enables Optimized Controlling and Steering at UKA." 

Analyst report reveals that business intelligence helped University Clinic of Aachen generate $6.5 million in ROI.