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In hospitals, enormous amount of data is generated every day from patient histories and appointment schedules to lab results and billing information. But even with all this information, much of it isn’t used to its full potential. The gap between data and decision-making is concerning.
One healthcare analyst, Sharat Chandra Kothakapu, has spent the last decade working to close this gap. With a background in healthcare analytics and operations, he has taken on roles across several hospital systems, helping them do more with the data they already have. His work has ranged from improving patient discharge times to making sure infusion chairs are used efficiently—and the common thread has always been turning overlooked information into real results.
One of his significant projects began with a deep dive into hospital length of stay. By examining when and why patient discharges were delayed, he worked with care teams to fix inefficiencies. The result was a noticeable drop in the time patients spent in the hospital, improving patient flow while keeping care standards high. Additionally, in outpatient clinics, he noticed that even busy departments had pockets of unused time in doctors’ schedules. After analyzing appointment patterns and gaps, he assisted in redesigning scheduling systems. That change meant more patients could be seen each day without adding to staff workloads—especially important in high-demand areas like oncology.
Through his initiatives, he also led to improvements in how hospitals manage limited resources. For example, infusion chairs used for chemotherapy were often booked inefficiently. To fix this, he developed a dashboard that tracked in real time how each chair was being used. This gave nurses and scheduling teams the information they needed to reduce wait times and avoid bottlenecks—leading to smoother operations and a better patient experience.
Furthermore, by bringing in public data—like benchmarking information from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration—he gave hospital leaders a clearer picture of how their facilities were performing compared to others in the region. This information is now used in planning decisions and helps shape service improvements. The analyst also helped combine data from insurance claims and internal records to identify high-risk patients. These insights led to targeted outreach programs, allowing care teams to better support patients with chronic conditions and prevent avoidable hospital visits.
Beyond the numbers, his role has always been hands-on. From leading the development of analytics dashboards to helping teams make sense of the data, he focuses on making tools that are actually usable by the people who need them, whether that’s a nurse, a scheduler, or an executive. He has built data warehouses, streamlined reporting systems, and worked with departments across hospitals to ensure that the insights are practical and actionable. It’s a mix of understanding the tools and understanding the people who use them.
Kothakapu shared that he also faced challenges, like outdated systems, disconnected data sources, and the general difficulty of changing how large organizations operate. But by sticking with projects and focusing on results, he has helped shift hospital culture—moving from just collecting data to actually using it to improve care. He believes that healthcare doesn’t need more dashboards or reports. What it needs is better use of the data it already has, combined with a commitment to acting on what the numbers show. As hospitals continue to balance patient care with tight budgets, this kind of work—linking information with impact—will only become more important.
In conclusion, hospitals are full of valuable information but without people and processes in place to make sense of it, that data stays stuck. They must invest in smarter data systems and practical tools to improve their efficiency, quality and accessibility of care. In the contemporary times, making better utility of existing data is important.
