Dashboards to Support Operational Decision Making in Health Centers: A Case for Role-Specific Design

ABSTRACT

Applying a user-centered design (UCD) process within the framework of a learning healthcare system (LHS), this study unearths role-specific performance measures to support operational and financial decision making in community health centers (CHCs). We first built a multidimensional EHR/Practice Management data warehouse through a large collaborative of seven CHCs in the state of Indiana aimed at improving efficiency and access to care. A UCD process that comprised contextual interviews, card sorting and high fidelity dashboard prototyping was used to uncover over 45 different operational performance measures, many of which were unique and hitherto unknown measures of relevance to different individual roles within a CHC that included frontline staff, providers, clinical support, and executive management. Within the LHS paradigm, the study highlights the value of role-specific performance measurement and their delivery through interactive user-centered visualizations, while continuing to guide the development of future informatics tools.

Acknowledgments

The authors would also like to acknowledge the staff at the collaborating health centers for their time and support; and the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing (Indianapolis, IN) for providing the necessary technology infrastructure.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank and acknowledge the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which has funded this 3 years, $2M grant award (IH-12-11-5488; ‘Improving Access to Care and Efficiency of Healthcare Systems for Underserved Patients’).

Notes on contributors

Kislaya Kunjan

Kislaya Kunjan has a doctorate in health informatics with a dissertation on the design a multidimensional big data analytics platform for health centers. He is currently the Health IT Director at the Indiana Primary Health Care Association. Prior to that he spent many years as a medical technology entrepreneur.

Bradley Doebbeling

Brad Doebbeling is a Professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. Beyond his clinical experience, he was the founding director of a Veteran Affairs Health Service R&D center of excellence and chair of a BioHealth Informatics Department. He has expertise in implementation science, systems redesign and informatics.

Tammy Toscos

Tammy Toscos is an informatics research scientist at the Parkview Research Center. Tammy earned a doctorate in Informatics and a health services research fellowship at the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine. Her research interests include designing technology that supports patient decision-making and their communication with caregivers.