Improving Decision-Making in A&E: A Business Intelligence Approach

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Business Intelligence

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
P1 Examine, using examples, the terms ‘Business Process’ and ‘Supporting Processes’..........2
M1 Differentiate between unstructured and semi-structured data within an organisation..........3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Compare the types of support available for business decision-making at varying levels
within an organisation..................................................................................................................4
M2 Justify, with specific examples, the key features of business intelligence functionality......4
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................6
P3 Determine, with examples, what business intelligence is and the tools and techniques
associated with it..........................................................................................................................6
P4 Design a business intelligence tool, application or interface that can perform a specific task
to support problem-solving or decision-making at an advanced level........................................7
M3 Customise the design to ensure that it is user-friendly and has a functional interface.........8
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................9
P5 Discuss how business intelligence tools can contribute to effective decision-making..........9
P6 Explore the legal issues involved in the secure exploitation of business intelligence tools...9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Business process of A&E in relation to patient handling................................................3
Figure 2: Business Intelligence capabilities....................................................................................6
Figure 3: Business Intelligence user interface for the organisation.................................................8

Introduction
The report has outlined the significance of business intelligence at different level of the
organisation for making quality decisions, and data analysis. It is the strategy driven by
technology and applications with the help of which strategic planning can effectively be
implemented that support accurate and reliable strategic decisions. In the current report, the
business and supporting process is discussed in the context of A&E of East Lancashire hospital.
The A&E has employed highly qualified and experienced professionals to offer the medial
services to the patients in emergency and accidental cases. The report has also discussed the BI
functionality, tools and techniques along with examples to determine its role in effective
decisions making and increased business efficiency. However, there are some legal issues are
also discussed that are required to be considered by A&E while implementing BI for its business
data management.
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Task 1
P1 Examine, using examples, the terms ‘Business Process’ and ‘Supporting Processes’
The business process includes the collection of a series of tasks, completion of tasks ensure
attainment of goals and objectives of the organisation. It must involve a defined set of inputs to
get a single quality output for the effective services to the patients. Such inputs help to add the
value to the service outcome of A&E. On the other hand, supporting process is performed to
improve the outcome of primary business processes (Business Intelligence, 2019). It does not
produce the final outcome of the business process at A&E; rather it contributes indirectly to the
value addition of final services. Supporting process includes management, configuration,
documentation, auditing training and verification process at A&E department of East Lancashire
hospital.
The present task focuses on the A&E department of the hospital that provide services regarding
emergency and accidental treatment. The supporting process is carried out with the help of
dedicated personnel, like, doctors, nurses, medical team, etc. that are above 25 in number. All the
personnel are qualified and trained in providing treatment to the employees in emergency and
other cases. There are three phases in which the entire business process is divided which are
effectively carried out with the help of supporting process (IşıK et al., 2013). The initial phase
begins with the registration of patients, and after then they have to wait for getting room
available for them. In this phase, patients have to wait for around one hour and ten minutes or
even more time to get the room available.
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Figure 1: Business process of A&E in relation to patient handling
In the patient management phase, patients are examined and supported with qualified human
resources to get their treatment effects, and hence it requires approximately 3 hours and 10
minutes in completing the process. It also includes the testing and examination process on the
basis of which further treatment is made by the doctors (Lim et al., 2013). The last phase of
patient discharge is carried out when the diagnosis is completed, and therefore, there are three
destinations where patients can be transferred, home, observation unit, or another department of
the hospital.
M1 Differentiate between unstructured and semi-structured data within an organisation.
Unstructured data refers to unorganised data as per the predefined data model; hence, it cannot
be stored in a mainstream relational database. Therefore, to store and manage such data there are
some alternative platforms which can be used by the organisation with the help of analytics
application and business intelligence. At the other side, semi-structured data refers to such
information that does not store in the relational database, but it is easier to analyse as it has
distinct organisational and analytical properties (JEREMY RONK , 2014). It refers to all the data
that can reside in SQL database in the form of a table with rows and columns. The unstructured
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data are based on binary data and characters while semi-structured data uses the technology
based on RDF/XML.
In the present task, the data regarding patients are classified into four categories which are based
on the level of emergency and acuteness of the case. The first category is of the patients that
require immediate emergency treatment on arrival at the hospital (Different types of data, 2019).
Hence, the supporting team can attend eight patients per day on an emergency basis. In the
second Group, A&E concerns on those patient that require emergency treatment but are not
under any risks. Therefore, 33 patients can be attended by the medical and supporting team to
treat them and offer quality services. When the level of emergency for the patients is low, then
they will be classified under the third Group that requires around 2 hours to treat them (Larson
and Chang, 2016). The last degree is for those patients who arrive at the hospital without any
emergency case and hence, around five patients can be treated in this Group at A&E hospital.
The treatment of patients is also done on the basis of path information in which patients are
categorised based on the emergency and symptoms level. Each path involves supporting
members and shared equipment and technical resources to offer the best medical treatment to the
patients. In the red path, those Group 1 and two patients are admitted that might be hospitalised,
the orange path includes patients of group 3 that does are not facing severe medical symptoms.
Gree path is for the patients who needed light surgical intervention while the psychiatric path is
for the treatment of psychiatric patients (Wang et al., 2018).
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Task 2
P2 Compare the types of support available for business decision-making at varying levels within
an organisation
In the Lancashire hospital, A&E department is highly supported by qualified and technical
personnel with the quality and immediate medical facilities, emergency treatment and room
availability. The decision making at the A&E department of the hospital is made effective with
the support of nurses, medical team, doctors, administrative staff, and other personnel. The
nurses at A&E hospital are well trained and experienced in managing the workload at the
hospital. The well-experienced nurses having specialised knowledge and leadership skills
support the A&E in managing and prioritising the patients according to the emergency level and
symptoms case (Hui et al., 2013).
There are interns in the hospital that support A&E in managing the emergency cases of patients
by appropriately diagnosing them. In addition, the interns can also be called supervisors for their
assistance in the treatment of patients. Hence, it also supports the patients in getting their
treatment in a supportive and responsive environment. On the basis of the report provided by the
interns, further treatment is carried out with the support of doctors and specialists. The A&E
department has also created a medical team that takes care of the patients during the entire
treatment procedure and ensure regular interaction with them to ensure a positive and healthy
environment (Raghupathi and Raghupathi, 2014). The discharge process of patients is also
supported by the medical team and nurses in fulfilling the discharge requirements, paperwork,
and documentation.
M2 Justify, with specific examples, the key features of business intelligence functionality
A&E desires to manage its data with the integrated enterprise approach and hence, business
intelligence is an important tool in this context. Business intelligence (BI) is featured with
technologies, practices, and application which can be used to analyse the business data at A&E
hospital for improved and informed decisions making (Rusaneanu, 2013). The system of
business intelligence provides the current, historical, and forecasting views of business data
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collected and gathered into a data mart or data warehouse. For example, the supporting software
of BI helps to analyse and visualise the data in a graphical and statistical form.
Figure 2: Business Intelligence capabilities
(Source: https://selecthub.com)
BI involves data analytics and a business system that empower business and user to access the
information and interpret easily without any direct involvement of IT. The features of BI include
interactive data visualisations, data lineage, data analysis, cloud deployment, dashboard
management, workflow collaboration, etc. A&E is required to have various technologies to
effectively utilise the BI features for business processes, such as database management systems,
transaction processing systems, office information systems, etc.
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Task 3
P3 Determine, with examples, what business intelligence is and the tools and techniques
associated with it
Business intelligence refers to the use of computing technologies to gather, identify, and analyse
the business data, like, patient details, revenue, and costs analysis at the A&E department of the
hospital. BI supports the analysis of internally structured data of A&E and assist the management
in decision making and getting insight into the operational activities with the help of functions
such as, reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), data mining, predictive analytics,
benchmarking, business performance, etc. For example, the details collected from the patients at
the time of registration can be used to analyse the occupancy rate of rooms at A&E hospital
(Kumari, 2013).
There are various tools and techniques that support A&E to improve its business operational
activities. For example, an automatic data analysis tool is machine learning, which is a branch of
AI. Machine learning tool provides that systems can learn, and identify patterns on the basis of
data automatically, and hence, accordingly decisions can be taken with minimal intervention of
humans (Machine learning, 2019). Another BIT tool that A&E can use for its business process
includes Artificial Intelligence. It explores the and studies the computer system to help machines
in solving problems, analyse complex data, and make practical decisions for the better future
business process of A&E. It provides the flexibility in business performance and therefore,
improves the reliability and decision making the power of A&E management.
There are also predictive analysis tools that relate to the statistical areas and extract the
information from the warehoused data to predict behavioural trends and patterns. It includes deep
learning algorithms, data modelling, data mining, etc. to interpret the historical and current data
for future projections.
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P4 Design a business intelligence tool, application or interface that can perform a specific task to
support problem-solving or decision-making at an advanced level
A&E is currently facing the management issue regarding patients and relevant data which also
impact the overall decisions making the process of the organisation. Also, it is gradually
decreasing the number of patients at the hospital. Such an issue can be resolved with the
effective user interface or business intelligence tool. The tool will help to resolve the issues of
managing the day to day operations by providing the feature of customisation and technology-
driven data analytics. In addition, statistical and algorithmic data can be interpreted effectively to
improve the decisions making the process at A&E (Karami et al., 2013). For example, graphs
can be used by the management personnel to identify the availability of rooms at the right time
for the patients. In addition, the allocation of rooms can also be simplified with the data analysis
of an occupied number of rooms, persons, and their details.
Figure 3: Business Intelligence user interface for the organisation
(Source: https://saasuserexperience.wordpress.com)
The overall complexity of the issues is required to be analysed at an advanced level that is
supported by the technology-driven BI tools. For example, BI helps the doctors and medical
team in analysing the level of emergency, and symptoms of the patients so that they can be
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categorised according to the Group or degree and on the basis of severity, they can be transferred
to the different paths at the hospital (Ashrafi et al., 2014). Hence, the digital dashboard and
graphical tool of BI can simplify the entire business process, supporting process, and facilitate in
making reliable and accurate decisions for the future.
M3 Customise the design to ensure that it is user-friendly and has a functional interface
BI needs to be user-friendly and must have a functional interface so that the entire working of
A&E can be effectively utilised to improve the routine as well as advanced activities. For
example, the digital dashboard in BI can be kept simple that easily provides the information to
the user without navigating from different sections and menus. The application must have the
elements of interaction design, information architecture, and visual design so that the user can
easily access, and use the information (Ali et al., 2013).
The BI application can be provided with customisation feature so that the required information
can be access within less time that supports quality and the effective making of decisions. The
user interface created for the user must be comfortable to use, consistent, and featured with
common elements to ensure that things can be done as quickly as possible. The BI dashboard can
also be configured with the feature of default so that burden over the user while extracting
information can be reduced efficiently (Foshay and Kuziemsky, 2014). For example, the
occupancy rate for the bed can be set at 80% and the system will automatically notify when the
occupancy reaches near the default limit. It supports A&E management in making subsequent
changes and decisions regarding the bed allocation to the patients.
The engagement of the user must also be encouraged for the BIT usage, and therefore, the user
interface can include graphical and visual presentations. The aspect of security and integrity of
the information is required to be kept at the priority with appropriate validation and authenticated
process. It will help to collect, store, and extract secure and reliable data for the fruitful business
decisions.
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