Axiom terminology
The following are common terms and concepts used widely in the Axiom Enterprise Decision Support.
Account
An account in Axiom is the account that exists in your general ledger. As part of the implementation process, your Syntellis Implementation Consultant reviews your accounts and assigns a cost category and variability for each expense account.
Allocation
Allocation is the process of moving expenses from overhead to direct departments. For more information, see Manage allocation definitions.
Cost category
A cost category is used to group similar general ledger expense accounts to perform the costing process. They are the lowest level of detail at which costs will be calculated for unit costs. As part of the implementation process, your Syntellis Implementation Consultant will walk through a list of your expense accounts to determine which cost categories should be assigned to each. The consultant will also help you determine which cost categories are fixed or variable in the context its behavior in relation to changes in patient volume.
Department
Departments in Axiom are the departments that exist in your general ledger. As part of implementation, your Syntellis Implementation Consultant will review each department to assign a department type:
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Direct - Departments that provide patient care and usually include patient revenue and volume or activity in which to assign costs to. If expenses or revenue do not line up in the same department, you can use reclasses to align the expenses to the appropriate activity.
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Indirect - Departments that provide support services and do not generate patient care related revenue. These are often referred to as overhead departments. Expenses in indirect departments are later moved to direct departments using allocations.
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Deadend - Departments not related to your core business but rely on the support of indirect departments. Axiom allows these department types to receive allocations, but they are ignored from the rest of the costing process.
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NA - Departments excluded from the costing process or fully reclassed to other departments.
The records for each department are stored in the Axiom core Departments dimension.
Dimension
Dimensions are tables that display specific information stored in the Axiom database. For example, the Departments dimension shows a list of your organization's departments, including attributes and descriptions of each such as the department ID, the region it belongs to, the cost center it reports to, and so on. Dimensions are used across Axiom products, but some are specific to a product while others are used across all products. Dimensions are configured or imported from your organization as part of the initial set up of the system by your Syntellis Implementation Consultant, but your organization will also need to maintain them, as needed.
Every table in the database must have at least one key column, signified with blue shading. Key columns define unique records of data in the table. If a table has one key column, then each value in that key column must be unique and defines a unique record in the table. If a table has multiple key columns, then each combination of values in those key columns defines a unique record in the table.
In Axiom Enterprise Decision Support, there are three types of dimensions: Core, Encounter, and Reference.
Each cost model can also have its own version of the Cost Categories, Accounts, and Departments dimensions. For more information, see Work with dimension versions.
Reclass
Reclassification is the process of moving dollars from one general ledger location to another. Unlike allocations that allow you to move only overhead expenses, you can use reclasses to move expenses, statistics, revenue, deductions, and other dollar types from one department or account to another.