Challenges faced by e-healthcare comparative data warehouses.
More and more healthcare facilities are equipping themselves with DSS systems and looking at their own data in a benchmarking manner. Some are considering accessing data from other healthcare facilities to decrease costs while improving quality of care. Many vendors claim to have that information. Some redistribute publicly available data; others actively seek information from a multitude of facilities. Those vendors are faced with many challenges as they try to provide information that is meaningful and usable for their clients. This article explores some of these challenges, particularly the data and technical challenges. It addresses the issues of standardizing data, as well as the technology to manage and secure that information, and provides examples that illustrate solutions that some vendors have implemented.