Power BI Setup

Power BI can use many different sources to pull in data to allow a user to dive deeper into their data using various visuals and calculations. We have a process that produces CSVs of your data to be included in Power BI. Our process runs every night between 12 AM and 1AM EST, extracting a variety of information up to that minute. This is important to note as you need to remember that Power BI is not using live data. Essentially, the file we produce provides up to the previous days information.

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Download Your Data

To begin extracting your data, we have a screen in eCR called Power BI File Retriever. This screen effectively allows a user to extract their eCR universe out of eCR. There are many different tables and data elements that are included in this process however it is not all your eCR data. For a reference of what is included, please refer to the data dictionary of the tables & fields.

In the Power BI File Retriever screen, there are 3 steps to get set up initially.

1. You will need to set a file path to extract your data to.
   • This is set per user, not by the agency.
   • You should only need to set this once unless you change the locations where you want to hold your data.
2. The Data Files button will initiate a download of a compressed file containing your CSVs.
   • The data files will need to be downloaded/extracted as you need.
3. The Power BI File button will download a blank preconstructed Power BI with our data tables already mapped.
   • It is important to note that you do not need to use our file, however, it can make the process easier.
   • Another important item to note is that Power BI is just like any other Microsoft application; you can have many different files containing different reports. You wouldn’t put everything into one excel file or word doc. The same rule applies here.
   • You do not need to download a new file each time you go to this screen. This should only be used if you need a blank copy of our template file
     • It is important to note that when downloading a blank template, it will overwrite an existing Power BI file if it shares the same name just like any other file (word doc, csv, pdf, etc.).

Security

Something to consider before extracting any data out of eCR is setting policies or security privileges to access this data. You are extracting your eCR universe which includes an extreme amount of patient data (PHI). This data should be held in a secure location on your local machine or on an internal network. As per HIPAA guidelines, only the necessary individuals should have access to this data.

There are 2 requirements to extract your eCR data:

1. The user must have access to the Power BI File Retriever Screen in eCR.
2. The user must also have an access right entirely managed by the system to be allowed to extract the data files.

Just because you can get to the Retriever screen, doesn’t mean you can download the data.

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Recommendations

It is strongly encouraged that you setup up your data to be extracted to one location on your shared network that is secure with limited access. This ensures that only the necessary individuals can reach the data.

Regarding the data files refresh process, this should be assigned to only a few individuals. If these individuals are extracting your data to a shared location, only one person needs to download the data for the team to access.

Set Up the Template Power BI File

There are a few steps required to set up a Power BI File to allow your data to be used in our template file. We will need to do the following.

1. Extract the CSVs from the compressed file.
   • Power BI cannot read a compressed folder so to make the data readable in Power BI, we need to extract the data.
     1. Navigate to the location where the data is exported to.
     2. Right-click on the compressed folder.
     3. Select Extract All and choose where you would like to save the CSVs and scripts.
2. Edit parameters update folder path.
   1. Once the data has been extracted, open the Ten Eleven Template file.
   2. Under the Transform Data Option in the ribbon at the top, select Edit Parameters.
   3. Go back to your data files folder and copy the folder path. Paste this folder path in Power BI as the Parameter.
      • A “\” must be added to the end of the folder path identifying that we are using the entire contents of the folder, not an individual file.
   4. Click Apply changes and refresh. Your data should load in.

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Manage and Refresh Your Data Going Forward

When it comes to refreshing your Power BI files, it only takes a few steps. Once the file has been set up and saved, you can refresh the Power BI with the latest data by:

1. Download the latest data files in the Power BI File Retriever Screen.
2. Extract All CSVs from the compressed folder.
3. Select Refresh in Power BI.

Additional Reference Material

For additional documentation on this process, please refer to the Power BI File Retriever articles. See Navigate Power BI for more information. 

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