Envida is the largest care organization in South Limburg. Via 19 locations and 51 regional teams, the organization provides services in the field of accommodation, welfare, and care for senior citizens and chronically ill patients. At Envida, the clients are in control of the care and services they receive, enabling them to live optimal lives in line with their circumstances and capabilities.
Today's healthcare sector is facing challenges on an unprecedented scale. Life expectancy is increasing and the demand for healthcare and healthcare workers is growing accordingly. However, the number of employees in the sector is shrinking. Older care staff are retiring, and fewer young people are choosing to pursue a career in healthcare. Changes such as flexibility, differentiation of job profiles in the workplace, and the adoption of innovative technological developments will be essential in order to keep up with snowballing workloads.
Data-driven health care
"These challenges amplify the importance of achieving data-driven working methods in the healthcare sector," explains Jan Goyen, BI Specialist at Envida. "In-depth insight into our organization and our working methods is vital in order to implement process improvements, provide better healthcare, and both measure and improve client satisfaction."
For many years, Envida has worked hard to boost data insight in order to identify connections, draw conclusions and take action to improve client-oriented care. "Since the end of the 1990s, we have operated a data warehouse to facilitate collection of valuable data from business and care processes in a single smart location as well as a front-end to enable the presentation of our data to stakeholders, " says Jan. "However, technology never stands still and user expectations for data are always increasing, so in 2019, we decided to switch to a more modern solution for translating our data into reports and dashboards."
"In the healthcare sector, data-driven working methods are vital in order to implement process improvements, provide better healthcare and optimize client satisfaction."
Jan Goyen, BI Specialist, Envida
A diverse range of administrative systems and care programs
To enable this transition, Envida decided to collaborate with SDB Analytics. This firm plays a leading role in providing integrated cloud solutions for management information, budgeting, forecasting, process monitoring, and self-organization within the healthcare sector. "To get our healthcare data truly working for us, we chose to work together with SDB Analytics due to their extensive knowledge of the healthcare sector." explains Jan. "We use a diverse range of administrative systems and care programs in order to record and store data, and SDB Analytics has developed smart 'connectors' to link data from systems such as AFAS, mijnCaress, ONS, PlanCare, Visma, and Ysis."
"The Envida team had already developed a number of prototypes with Microsoft Power BI and that was working quite well in terms of both development time and presentation," says Marcel Brockhoff, Business Unit Manager at SDB Analytics. "However, the way the data was connected for Microsoft Power BI using SQL Server Integration Services was not robust enough."
"Our data warehouse model suffered from many technical limitations," adds Nick Schols, BI Specialist at Envida. "For example, it was a dimensional model rather than a tabular one, there was no staging area and no opportunities to create documentation. In short, to create a future-proof solution, we had to focus not only on how we present the data but also on how we manage the data."
Smart and flexible data preparation
Following a brief exploration of tools that could meet Envida's data management needs, the team quickly made the decision to select TimeXtender. "TimeXtender is way ahead of its competitors and provides a quick, smart and flexible way of preparing data for reports and analyses," says Jan. "It's a drag-and-drop solution for connecting and preparing data and it automatically generates code and documentation. All of the data is structured, stored in the cloud, and protected with extremely solid and reliable data security."
"TimeXtender is way ahead of its competitors and provides a quick, smart and flexible way of preparing data for reports and analysis."
Jan Goyen, BI Specialist, Envida
Although Envida is extremely happy with TimeXtender, the implementation took a little longer than planned. "We started in April 2021 and the original schedule was to finish by August, but it ultimately took until October," says Jan. "To any of my colleagues who are considering this step, I have three important tips: firstly, do your homework, ensure that you firmly safeguard your knowledge and implement the system in stages. For example, if you want to connect 10 applications, do it one at a time. By validating the implementation and discussing the end results with your partners, you will be able to make any necessary adjustments much quicker."
A strong and solid engine
The Envida team is convinced that TimeXtender has better prepared them for the future. "When we adopted Microsoft Power BI as a reporting and analysis tool, our needs increased exponentially as the data truly comes to life," says Nick. "More and more data sources have to be connected until you have a situation comparable to having a flashy new sports car with a bad engine. You may be able to deliver attractive reports, but if things aren't working well under the hood, you'll break down sooner or later. Microsoft Power BI is the flashy car, while TimeXtender is the solid, reliable engine."
"Ultimately, organizations want to work towards self-service BI: an easy-to-use environment that enables everyone in healthcare management -including middle managers- to get the most out of the data," adds Jan. "If employees both in the field and in the office can quickly and independently find answers to questions on continuity, client/employee satisfaction, route optimization, and other vital issues, then we'll be able to implement process improvements more quickly and provide better care for lower costs while maintaining the same workforce."
"Microsoft Power BI is the flashy car, while TimeXtender is the solid, reliable engine."
Nick Schols, BI Specialist, Envida
About Envida
Envida is the largest intramural and extramural care organization in South Limburg.
Challenges:
- Outdated data warehouse environment
- Growing demand for data and insight within the organization
- No capability for centralized management, modeling, and preparation of data by multiple parties
- Compliance with privacy legislation
Solution and benefits:
- The organization chose to implement the TimeXtender data management platform
- All data is stored and documented centrally and securely
- The system is fully compliant with the GDPR
- New data sources can be quickly connected
- Process improvements can be implemented more quickly, enabling improvement of care
TimeXtender : September 27, 2021
TimeXtender