Plexus Medical Group Makes Hospitals Accountable for Quality Care

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS--(Marketwire - February 7, 2008) - Information Builders, the leader in production business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that the consulting firm Plexus Medical Group has come up with an antidote for the lack of accurate performance information that plagues hospitals and physicians.

Using Information Builders WebFOCUS platform, Netherlands-based Plexus has created a nationwide system that delivers information about costs, reimbursements, treatment success rates, and many other key performance indicators (KPIs). The BI solution, called Pi, helps providers analyze the quality and efficiency of their primary processes, then compares these results to national benchmarks. Hospitals using Pi may have cost reductions of up to 10 percent of their annual budgets, thanks to insight derived from the system.

"All healthcare organizations strive to provide high-quality care for an equitable price. But how do these organizations know if they are achieving this goal without precise measures?" asked Erik-Jan Vlieger, senior consultant at Plexus Medical Group. "We're using BI technology to give administrators and physicians a level of visibility into their facilities and processes that was formerly difficult to achieve, so they can improve the quality and value of their services."

Hospitals in the Netherlands are required to provide detailed information to a national regulatory organization. This registration data is used to calculate healthcare costs, regulate the prices that hospitals can charge, and serves as a benchmark for the nation's healthcare facilities. Pi aggregates the data that hospitals deliver to this national regulatory organization and presents it through BI dashboards so healthcare organizations can compare the quality of their services to internal and external standards. For example, Pi might reveal that one department in a hospital has a consistently superior treatment success rate. Further examination of the data may disclose that this department maintains a higher nurse-to-patient ratio than other departments. Administrators can then adjust staff schedules to improve the situation.

With help from Information Builders Professional Services, Plexus built Pi in about six months during 2007. WebFOCUS presents performance information through role-based balanced scorecards, including stats about the delivered and experienced quality of care, financial results, and market position. Today, ten hospitals in the Netherlands are actively using the system to fine-tune the quality and efficiency of the care they deliver to patients. Plexus anticipates growing its user base from 10 percent of the hospitals in the Netherlands to 30 or 40 percent. The company is also exploring opportunities to bring Pi to other countries.

Pi also generates data for health inspectors and insurance suppliers, along with a detailed analysis of financial results and physician profiles. This makes it a valuable managerial tool for hospital directors.

"Developing KPIs and monitoring patient trends is vital for today's healthcare organizations," said Gerald Cohen, founder and CEO at Information Builders. "Carefully tracking these measures leads to better management, which results in greater patient satisfaction and more consistent quality control. Plexus Medical Group is setting new precedents for how BI can impact the healthcare industry."

About Information Builders

Information Builders award-winning combination of business intelligence and enterprise integration software has been providing innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers for the past 30 years. WebFOCUS is the world's most widely utilized business intelligence platform. It provides the security, scalability, and flexibility needed at every level of global extended enterprises. Its simplicity helps create executive, analytical, and operational applications that reach dozens to millions of users. Information Builders iWay Software suite provides state-of-the-art, multi-purpose, pre-built integration components that address all SOA, application, data, and information management requirements. Its integration adapters have been adopted by the leading software platform providers. Together, these products give Information Builders customers the ability to live up to the company motto: "Your Business. No Barriers."

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