Why a Star Schema Matters in Healthcare
In healthcare, a single patient can have multiple hospital visits, hundreds of diagnosis codes, and different insurance plans. A flat table breaks down under that weight.
- Solving the business problem: Moving from a flat table to a star schema allows us to separate clinical events (Fact tables) from patient and facility attributes (Dimension tables). This structure optimizes query performance when running complex risk-adjustment calculations across millions of member records.
Part 3.1 — Fact Table Design
Part 3.2 — Dimension Tables
Part 3.3 — Relationship Diagram