Out of 11 high-income countries, the U.S. came dead last in both performance and efficiency in healthcare.

Administrative costs account for 15% to 30% of all U.S. medical expenses, many times higher than in comparable countries. And “at least half” of that spending “does not contribute to health outcomes in any discernible way.”  

Among the top challenges in healthcare, suboptimal clinical workflows and personnel shortages or burnout directly impact operational efficiency. 

It’s clear that efficiency is both a massive thorn in the side of the healthcare industry, as well as a massive opportunity. One of the best ways to improve healthcare efficiency is through better data analytics, more effective information sharing, and eliminating manual and paper processes. 

Power Platform: An Efficiency Driver in Healthcare

Microsoft’s Power Platform (which is HIPAA-compliant) is perhaps the best way to achieve greater efficiency. Power Platform’s robust features help address key everyday challenges in the healthcare sector. 

To give you some inspiration, here are six different ways Microsoft Power Platform helps boost healthcare efficiency.

1. Filter and Manage Vital Statistics

A Power BI dashboard allows you to filter data about your operations, helping you view relevant data and make decisions more quickly and easily. 

For example, you can see statistics about a specific physician, sort patients by date, gender, age, or financial class, and review the payer mix (i.e. the Medicare population). 

You can also overlay these categories for more granular insights, such as how many of a physician’s patients belong to a specific segment.

2. Track Staffing and Patient Levels by Day or Hour

Many healthcare administration teams have to manually compile staff hours from different sources, leading to wasted time and potential errors. Power BI streamlines this by pulling hours from different sources—such as Epic, Cerner, or shift scheduling systems—into a single dashboard. 

Power BI makes it easy to view how many hours each physician has worked each week. You can also break down the information further or compare it with other databases for a more granular view. 

No matter how many data sources or hour-tracking systems you use, Power BI helps you get more value from your data.

3. Ensure Secure Access to Reports

Here’s yet another great Power BI use case. You can distribute Power BI reports using row-level security. In the example above, row level security can be configured so that each doctor will see their own data—and no one else has access to the doctor’s data view.

Instead of creating a separate report for each person, you can send a consolidated report to the entire group. A Power BI dashboard will automatically filter the information to show each person only what they’re authorized to access.

4. Send Referrals and Track Follow-Up Visits

Power Apps allows you to create simple forms that store data in a centralized location. 

For example, when a doctor in the emergency room needs to refer a patient to the orthopedic office, they can fill out a simple form, pick from a list of recipients, and track progress. 

This function offers an efficient solution (that beats relying on faxes, emails, or phone calls) for referring patients to different units in a health system or PCP offices. 

5. Create and Track Staff Training for Compliance

You can also use Power Apps to create custom training modules. 

For example, you can convert a PowerPoint presentation into Power Apps. The app stores the data when an employee has viewed all the slides and clicks on the finish button. You can use these training slides on an ongoing basis, making updates when necessary. 

You can later compile a list of everyone who has completed the training and when they did it for compliance purposes.

6. Send Emails From a Dataverse Table

Power Automate helps you put various manual processes on autopilot. 

Let’s take the employee training example above. You can set up an automated workflow so the manager receives an email notification whenever a user completes the training—and a row is added to the database table. 

Automation helps reduce the time staff members spend on repetitive tasks and minimize mistakes caused by human error.

Maximize Healthcare Efficiency with Microsoft Power Platform

Power Platform offers robust tools for healthcare organizations to transform their operations. When you invest resources into increasing efficiency in your healthcare organization, you’re able to focus on the things that increase the quality of care. 

But to get the most out of Microft’s Power Platform, you must correctly set it up to support your current workflows and data infrastructure.

When you work with Collectiv, our team of experts will consider every aspect of your organization to recommend and implement the most relevant tools and processes. 

Get in touch to see how we can help you boost efficiency so you can focus on delivering more quality care.