Data-Oriented Practices for Sustainable Healthcare Organizations

Data are an engine of decisions, and in an industry such as healthcare, the consequences of decisions go beyond business sustainability to affect human lives. Hence, the data governance concept in healthcare organizations is vital and not only for compliance purposes. Thus, this review aims to provide an overview of the roles of data governance in achieving a sustainable healthcare organization by surveying the literature of the last decade. Fifteen studies were included; the roles span from the ability of data governance to transform organizations and help in achieving competitive advantages to boosting performance and effectiveness. Additionally, data governance has established roles in providing harmonization in processes and data. These roles are attributed mainly to flexible, scalable, and structured practices in managing data, which in turn lead to enhanced data flow, reuse of data, and hence interoperability across the organization. Unlike other industries, the governance of data in healthcare has yet to be well standardized, considering the complexity of processes and heterogeneity of data in healthcare. Therefore, building guidelines and best practices for governing data in healthcare is essential. Furthermore, stronger empirical studies are needed, considering the outcomes of data governance are context dependent.