Analytics Cheat Sheet
Data Sources
Chronicles
Real-time production database
Chronicles is the Epic production system, the database management system that underlies all of Epic’s applications. Each application builds upon the Chronicles unified data model to create clinical, financial, and administrative data sets. Because user-entered data is immediately available in Chronicles for real-time reporting, Hyperspace users requiring up to-the-minute results will most benefit from Chronicles-based reporting.
Clarity
Operational data store
Clarity extracts data from Chronicles and loads it to a dedicated reporting server. You can use this data to create analytical reports on large amounts of long-term data without slowing your production system. Use the Clarity database for reports that don’t need access to real-time data and require significant analysis.
Caboodle
Enterprise data warehouse
Caboodle, an enterprise data warehouse platform, brings together information from varied sources in a curated healthcare data model for improved data management and analytics. The Caboodle data warehouse can help your organization get more value from the information in your system and broaden the scope of your analytical reporting. Caboodle provides an analytics platform that is intuitive, flexible, and customizable.
Other Third-Party Sources
In addition to the data available from the Epic platform, Analytics utilizes external sources of information to expand and enhance our reporting capabilities. These sources include market data from COMPData, claims data from Rush Health and Health Alliance, legacy data from Affinity, and extracts from our own non-Epic internal systems such as employee rosters and budget information. This data is mostly stored alongside Epic data on the Clarity and Caboodle servers but is generally referenced separately and not considered to be part of those datasets.
Reporting Tools
Data sitting in a database is not much use to anyone. Reporting tools allow us to track, visualize, and understand our data. Here’s a breakdown of what we use at Riverside:
Reporting Workbench
Real Time Epic-Native Reports
Reporting workbench is Epic’s internal reporting tool used for tracking near-term, real-time data. It pulls directly from the Chronicles database and returns detailed, record-level information. Most reporting workbench reports can only be run for the last thirty days, so it is not the best tool for long-term, retrospective reporting, but it is a great way to see what’s happening in the hospital right now. Examples: Hours in Observation Report, COVID Patients In-House Report
Radar Dashboards
Real-Time Monitoring and Long Term Trending
Radar is Epic’s native dashboarding tool, it allows users to view a collection of small tables and graphs in a single report for quick reference and monitoring. Data in Radar Dashboards can come from Chronicles, Clarity, or Caboodle and can summarize data over longer periods of time than what is typically available in Reporting Workbench Reports. While a great resource customization is limited and other tools are required to access the detailed data behind Radar Dashboard summaries. Examples: Daily Census Dashboard, COVID Pulse Dashboard
SQL Server Reporting Service (SSRS)
Custom Long Term Reports
SSRS is the primary way we report out of the Clarity and Caboodle databases. It gives developers the ability to create highly customized reports with record detail and summaries and can utilize sophisticated calculations and logic to meet the specific needs of the report consumer. SSRS reports can be run both inside and outside of Epic, making them easier to access than other reporting tools. SSRS also has better tools for setting up and monitoring email subscriptions.
Examples: IP to OP Converted Accounts Detail, Medicaid Inpatient Percentage Monthly, Part B Only
Tableau
Powerful Data Visualization
Tableau was new to Riverside in 2020. It is a visualization platform that can incorporate and transform data from Clarity, Caboodle, and a variety of other non-Epic data sources into powerful interactive visualizations that make it easy for end users to gain insight from large datasets.
Examples: Cost and Utilization Dashboard, Leakage Dashboard, Pneumonia Readmissions Dashboard
Other Tools
Cobalt – Internally developed dashboard platform that leverages the speed and power of Microsoft Analysis Services. Go-to tool for monitoring market conditions using COMPData.
Cubes – Interactive data sources that can be used for self-service reporting in Excel. We have over 20 cubes in production covering topics such as Denials, Perioperative Services, ED Visits, Revenue and Usage, Supply and Drug Costs, Referrals, Blood Utilization, Narcotic Orders, Accounts, AR Aging, and Payments.
SlicerDicer – This is Epic’s self-service reporting tool that is built into Hyperspace. Similar cubes, SlicerDicer is designed to make it easier for end users to pull data for themselves. Epic has released over 50 SlicerDicer data models, though each can require significant build and validation work on the customer’s end to deploy. Currently, the following models are deployed or in the validation pipeline: Patients, HB Accounts, Births, HB Denials, PB Denials, HB Transactions, PB Transactions, Surgical Services.
Crystal Reports – Crystal Reports is a tool similar to SSRS that can be used to for long-term, SQL based reporting. Due to platform limitations and licensing costs, SSRS is the preferred platform at Riverside for these style reports. However, due to the large number of Epic-released Crystal reports that are still useful to our users, we continue to support the tool for legacy content.
Validation Tags
In an effort to both make more content available and help end users better understand the reliability of different reports, we have added Validation Tags to every report in Atlas. These tags indicate how reliable a report should be considered based on its origin and amount of testing. There are five tags:
Certified reports have received the highest level of scrutiny from the Analytics Team and the owning end user. These reports are the most reliable and accurate in the system.
Reviewed reports have gone through the standard Analytics code review and validation process. Reviewed reports can be trusted for monitoring most operational processes.
Epic Released Reports are limited to the standard Epic configuration. They cannot be customized to match Riverside’s unique system build and may not always be accurate. Use with caution.
Legacy reports have not been validated by the Analytics team for accuracy and reliability. Use with caution.
High Risk reports have not been validated by the Analytics Team and do not have a usage track record. It may display inaccurate or misleading information. Use at your own risk.
Data has been validated but content produced via self-service is the responsibility of the end user.