The most common hurdle for healthcare organizations with data analytics programs is consistent information from unique sources. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) can manage operational staff data, but cannot store patient-care related data, and therefore conducting a financial analysis of a patient care requires some imagination. If the analysis involves a nursing unit, the study may include clinical, operational staff data captured from the ERP such as shift worked, number of shifts worked for the current pay period, temporary or permanent resource status, educational background and professional credential levels. Linking this data to patient care data may require the shift date, patient bed assignment and other data elements. This type of analysis would only be possible on second- and third-generation data systems that can process different data languages for analysis and research. Read more at : http://healthitanalytics.com/news/goals-and-guidance-are-key-to-healthcare-big-data-analytics