Health Catalyst

We’ve figured out how to use analytics, best practices, and adoption services to improve outcomes

Health Catalyst was formed by a group of healthcare veterans with vast data warehousing, analytics and outcomes improvement experience. Early on, they saw where the healthcare industry needed to go. They built their own data warehouse, but realized it wasn’t sufficient to create the kind of fundamental improvement in outcomes that healthcare required. They soon realized they needed a multi-faceted approach combining technology, processes and people to achieve sustained outcomes improvement. After repeated experiences, they finally developed a three-pronged approach to improving outcomes: analytics, best practices, and a set of adoption processes. All three elements were necessary. If any were missing, sustainable outcomes became elusive. This approach was developed and fine-tuned within a large health system. After time, it became so successful that they decided to develop a solution that could be adapted to all types and sizes of healthcare organizations.

First, they commercialized their unique, healthcare-specific technology by introducing what is now called the Health Catalyst Late-Binding ™ Data Warehouse architecture. This platform is agile, flexible, and can be implemented in a matter of weeks compared to the months or years required by traditional data warehouses.

Second, they built a new series of analytics applications that included clinical and operational best practices gleaned from a combination of national and locally tuned sources. .They built these applications in a way that helped clinical teams significantly accelerate the outcomes improvement process by identifying the most common best practices and typical interventions for a specific clinical, financial, or operational process, while building flexibility into the applications to allow local health system data to tailor the solution to their needs.

Third, they developed a set of organizational adoption services and training, based on their years of experience, to help organizations accelerate their ability to prioritize, promote, educate, and scale outcomes improvement success across the system, as well as avoid many common, time-consuming pitfalls.

Finally, they started working with health systems of all sizes to improve outcomes. From large integrated delivery networks to academic medical centers to physician groups to community hospitals, the three elements of analytics, best practices, and organizational adoption proved successful. While each organization had specific needs that required adaption, the flexible Health Catalyst approach allowed it to grow and improve with each client.

And the results? We’ve now grown from a handful of employees to almost 400 team members. We’ve seen everyone from hospital administrators to doctors get excited about having near real-time access to a single source of truth. We’ve seen faces light up as they move beyond when the reports will come to what the reports reveal. And we’ve seen their passion when they learn how to use data to improve care. That drive to do right by the patients and the payers, to deliver the right treatment at the right time, is their passion. And their passion is our passion.