Patient scheduling might seem like too routine a chore to require business-intelligence software. But with 20 clinics treating hundreds of patients every day, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute needs more than a simple calendar to match patient appointments with the capacity of its clinics, waiting rooms, and registration facilities.

Dana-Farber, the teaching facility for Harvard Medical School, knows its waiting rooms can become overcrowded and patient waiting times unacceptably long. One reason for the chaos: Until recently, no one at the facility had a big-picture view of patient appointments. "People became just too busy to do that job in the right way," says John Orechia, clinical reporting team leader.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute gets a big-picture scheduling view, Orechia says

So Orechia's team began regularly downloading data from patient scheduling, registration, and billing systems into an Oracle data warehouse. Using reporting software from Business Objects SA, Orechia can develop reports that identify the best times to schedule patient visits.

About 120 administrators and researchers receive that information. The system also is used to plan staffing and facilities needs. "People can understand the business better now," Orechia says. He plans to develop real-time alerting capabilities that will let administrators know when a clinic is overbooked.

The data warehouse also contains clinical information, including data from an outside company that provides laboratory services and information from Dana-Farber's pharmacy system. Researchers tap into this data store to generate aggregate numbers on topics such as the kinds of cancers treated at the institute, treatments employed, and how many patients smoke. That information is used to write research papers, apply for grants, and identify patients who might benefit from experimental treatments.

The data warehouse has even become Dana-Farber's central source for information used in mailings to patients about new treatment options, educational seminars, and changes in procedures. That previously was done by the departments, but the decentralized approach resulted in conflicts when data in some departments wasn't up to date.