Data governance is gaining significance in the healthcare industry. It is becoming one of the top strategic assets in healthcare and healthcare systems now understand the importance of data governance. But only understanding is not enough. There is a long way to go from understanding the importance of data governance to implementing a data governance strategy.
Five Practical Steps to Healthcare Data Governance
Here are five steps for healthcare organizations to effectively set a data governance strategy.
1. Determine the Priorities of the Organization
You may be able to find data problems but it is not enough to determine where to focus the governance. The strategic goals of the organization must be fulfilled by analytics and data. Hence, the first step to develop a governance strategy is to have the priorities straight. It can be achieved by understanding the targets each team needs to deliver in the upcoming future. These targets can be general or specific and must have a clear rationale behind them. Listing down the goals help understand the priorities of the entire organization and makes it easier to develop a strategy.
2. Determine the Priorities for Data Governance
Once you have a list of priorities for the organization, the next thing to do is to list the priorities for data governance that can serve the priorities of the organization. Determining the data governance opportunities for the priorities is not a difficult task since analytics depend on timely and reliable data. After figuring out the opportunities, select the ones that serve beyond your initial focus.
3. Identify and Train the Early Adopters
Identify the leaders for the priorities and select which leaders can be the early adopters of the data governance strategy. The chosen leaders must be enthusiastic, energetic and motivating enough to lead others. They should have a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the governance and master it before leading others. Along with this, the leaders should also have connections with the right resources and understand the challenges and how to overcome any challenges in the way.
4. Determine the Scope of the Opportunity
Enthusiasm is good but too much of anything is bad. While it is good to stay motivated, don’t try to get a lot done in a shorter time. Begin with a small pilot team after understanding the scope of opportunity. Test the strategy you wish to implement with the team and improvise it to perfection. Start by setting the target on a manageable scale by focusing on a specific opportunity within a certain area. This can help you understand the problem and strategy better before implementing it on a larger scale.
5. Make Early Adopters the Data Governance Leaders
After the pilot teams have successfully achieved the objectives, you can move on to applying the processes on a larger scale. The early adopters make the best data governance leaders and mentors for larger adoption as they understand the process in depth which makes them capable of mentoring and leading others.
