Data management tools from Tableau, Inc. are essential to the way the Texas Institute for Robotic Surgery (TIRS) collects data. And they collect a lot of it — sensitive data too, since the TRIS manages data for the Hospital Corporation of America. Dr. Randy Fagin, Chief Administrative Officer of the TRIS, says they amass data on patient care, costs, training — basically, “everything that goes into creating an exceptional care experience.” Tableau comes in handy when the TRIS turns that data into ways they can provide a high-quality hospital experience.

Dr. Fagin talked with theCUBE host John Furrier at the Tableau Data ’14 conference, sharing the TRIS’s work with using Tableau to change how hospitals operate behind-the-scenes, finding ways to improve quality of care in the most fiscally responsible way.

Visualizing the hospital experience

Fagin’s began by explaining one of the key ways Tableau enabled the TRIS to make changes based on data. The TRIS wanted to figure out how much experience nurses need to provide the best care. The answer they got was totally unexpected. Data visualized through Tableau revealed that experience had little to do with the quality of care that nurses offer. The answer lay in what Fagin called “discipline.” Data revealed there is a set of “core behaviors” that nurses exhibit that truly impact patient care. This was exciting for the TRIS, because “you can scale discipline.” There’s concrete action hospital staff can take to improve patient care: nurses can be “managed to those disciplines,” Fagin said, in order to enhance patient care.

Tableau also enabled “real time accountability.” Data can be analyzed in real time and transparently provided to hospital workers. Instead of getting data from last quarter or the past year, nurses, surgeons and administrators can get information almost immediately and change their behavior to offer patients a “new level of care.”

Data visualization also enabled the TRIS to change the way hospitals staff operating rooms. In order to solve the challenges of organizing which staff member should be in which operation, based on the needs of patients and the differing levels of nurse and surgeon expertise. Tableau enables real time data analytics that, Fagin said, help the TRIS put, for example, “nurse in the right room to care for the right patient,” in order to “deliver better care more consistently.”

Lessons learned

At the Tableau conference, Fagin said he was most excited by the ability to network with individuals from completely different industries and see how they’re using the Tableau product. They all have a similar goal in mind, Fagin commented, “utilizing information to deliver the highest level of service.”

At the end of the interview, Fagin offered some advice to his peers considering investing in Tableau and data analytics: “If you’re going to leverage data analytics, it has to be an ongoing, real time conversation that never ends.” That way, Fagin said, “I get as much as I give.”

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