Abstract
The quantity of data generated within health care organizations has risen dramatically due to the increasing complexity of today's health care delivery systems. Some data are useful to decision makers, but often, there is too much information for the manager to handle. A new methodology is presented which is designed to provide only the information necessary for successful management of the organization. The methodology is illustrated by the executive information system developed and used by the Regional Kidney Disease Program (RKDP) at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota.The first step is identifying the organization's critical success factors. At RKDP, the administration and medical director established 4 such factors: 1. encouraging patient referrals, 2. maintaining or increasing quality of patient care, 3. keeping tight control on the unit cost of dialysis, and 4. maintaining an appropriate mix of patients in all modalities of care. Once success factors are identified, a data system can be designed to monitor and manage the factors. The whole system will consist of a data base system, which is driven by operational systems, and a decision support system, which is model-based. Success factors are subject to change and must be continually evaluated.