Success Story
Labor trend reporting “on the fly” helps UMMC make faster, more informed decisions
University of Maryland Medical Center saves cost center managers many hours of manual effort seeking labor trends with graphical reports using Visual Mining’s NetCharts® Server
Transforming labor cost reports from paper to interactive, online management tools University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) needed a way to transform many different paper-based operational reports into online equivalents. They quickly found it difficult to take a labor report, for example, with 30 columns and fit this into the confining space of a computer monitor.
UMMC began to analyze the meaning of the reports by asking “what information are people using the report for?” Following this example, they found that people were typing prior copies this labor report into spreadsheets to see a trending of their labor usage.
Converting paper reports to online reports created “formatting” challenges
In the beginning of 2001, Portals were bursting onto the scene with many vendors trying to sell an inclusive solution for the company’s reporting needs. UMMC was no different than any other company having many different departments creating reports and sending paper based copies through an interoffice mail system.
UMMC wanted an online central location for all operational reports that would provide the right information, to the right person, at the right time and in the right format. During the first year of the project, the technical staff created the framework and security structure for the application.
As more reports were converted from paper to online, the UMMC technical staff quickly found that the ‘right format’ part of the problem was difficult to produce on screen. A spreadsheet with 30 columns did not fit well on-screen in a basic HTML table. It was decided that a graphing package was needed to display the data in the ‘right format.’ After reviewing many solutions — from open source to expensive data mining tools — Visual Mining gave UMMC all the tools needed, at a reasonable price.
First, the data from the labor reports was stored in a database. Then, using the Visual Mining NetCharts Server to generate a labor trending report on the fly, the 500+ cost center managers, directors and vice presidents seeking to find labor trends saved many, many hours of manual effort.
Figure 1: One of UMMC's reports used by cost center managers
to see labor trends.
The right information to the right person - at the right time
The Visual Mining tools have helped UMMC create a web-based reporting tool that provides the right information to the right person at the right time and definitely in the right format. The most beneficial outcome is the time saved on aggregating data for trend analysis and placing more meaningful information at the fingertips of decision-makers.
Analyzing a year's worth of materials data in a table is not nearly as effective as viewing the same data over a 12-month rolling bar chart. Providing these reports online has helped Medical Center management make more informed decisions, faster.
About UMMC:
UMMC's Mission is to be a standard-setting academic medical center in partnership with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The University of Maryland Medical Center exists to serve the medical needs of the people of Maryland and the region by providing:
- Tertiary care to the state and surrounding areas.
- Comprehensive care for the community.
- The primary site for health care education and research.
More information on UMMC may be found on the Company website at http://www.umm.edu .
