Real-Life Hospital Example
Central Hospital’s IT director wants a one-page snapshot of patient demographics ready before Monday’s board meeting. You are the analyst asked to turn the raw patient list into that snapshot.
Practical Exercise (Hands-On)
Import patients.csv into a new Power BI file. Build a bar chart of patient count by insurance_provider, a pie chart of patients by gender, and a card showing Total Patients. Format titles and apply a consistent color theme.
Step-by-Step
⚠️ Caution: This lab was developed using Microsoft Power BI Desktop v2.155.756.0 (64-bit). If you are using a different version, you may notice minor differences in the menus, icons, or interface.
- Open Power BI Desktop and select Get Data from the Home ribbon.
- Choose Text/CSV, then click Connect.
- Browse to and select patients.csv, then click Open.
- In the preview window, confirm the data looks correct (11 columns, 50 rows) and click Load.
- In the Data pane on the right, confirm the “patients” table appears with all its columns.
- On the Report canvas, select the Clustered Column Chart visual from the Visualizations pane.
- Drag insurance_provider to the Axis field and patient_id to the Values field (it defaults to Count of patient_id).
- Rename the visual title to “Patients by Insurance Provider” via the Format pane > General > Title.
- Click an empty area of the canvas, then select the Pie Chart visual.
- Drag gender to Legend and patient_id to Values (Count). Rename the title to “Patients by Gender.”
- Select the Card visual, drag patient_id into the Fields well, and set it to Count (Distinct) so it reads 50.
- Rename the card title to “Total Patients.”
- Go to View > Themes and apply a consistent color theme across all three visuals.
- Save the file as HospitalAnalytics_Week1.pbix.
Expected Result
Bar chart shows MedCare Plus (18), WellnessCorp (16), PulseSecure (10), HealthIndia (6); pie chart splits roughly 31 M / 19 F; card reads 50.