Providence Health & Services Expands System-Wide Deployment Of Health Catalyst's Data Warehouse Platform And Analytic Accelerators

Health Catalyst, the leader in healthcare data warehousing and analytics, announced recently an agreement with Providence Health & Services (Providence), to further expand its deployment of Health Catalyst's agile healthcare-specific data warehouse platform and analytic accelerators across Providence's 32-hospital system. The agreement is the third of its kind in the past twelve months and is expected to help Providence deliver substantial care improvements and cost reductions.

Providence is a not-for-profit, Catholic health care system with a 157-year history of providing acute, ambulatory, hospice and health care services. The health system's more than 64,000 employees and 3,000 employed physicians serve communities in Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Dan Burton, Chief Executive Officer of Health Catalyst, said, "Hospitals have immense amounts of complex data in separate applications that they need to rapidly transform into clinical and financial insights, and we are pleased to have helped Providence achieve that goal. With this latest expansion, we're excited to help decision makers across more clinical areas within the Providence network more quickly identify problem areas, prioritize needed changes, and develop evidence-based metrics and goals to transform and improve patient care."

Built for today's needs while adaptable for tomorrow's, Health Catalyst's data warehouse platform normalizes disparate data sources and enables rich meta data management that facilitates data access, discovery, analysis and reporting. Unlike other electronic data warehouse (EDW) technologies, Health Catalyst employs a "late-binding bus architecture" that delays making dramatic changes to the data drawn from source applications like Providence's Epic electronic health record (EHR) until after clinicians have had time to review it and form hypotheses.

The approach not only is faster and more agile than traditional "early-binding" EDWs; it also addresses the need for clinical analysis of near-real time information to track and improve care for whole populations of patients.  

"It is an honor to work with a client as significant as Providence," said Dale Sanders, Senior Vice President of Health Catalyst. "Providence's ability to engage with new ideas and new methodologies has been critical to helping the health system transform to the changing needs in healthcare while continuing to provide the most advanced and cost-effective care."

IDC Health Insights Report on Health Catalyst
In a related development, Health Catalyst was recently featured in a new report by industry analyst IDC Health Insights. The report describes Health Catalyst's solution for helping provider organizations analyze clinical data, improve quality, lower costs and succeed under accountable care.

The report, "Perspective: Health Catalyst - a Fresh Approach and Architecture for Clinical Analytics" (Document # HI239639, March 2013), by IDC Health Insights Research Director Judy Hanover, discusses the challenges facing healthcare organizations attempting to implement a data warehouse. The document states that Health Catalyst "has created new approaches to building, managing, and operating the clinical data warehouse (CDW) environment that has created opportunities for providers to harness data, make actionable interventions, and improve profitability."

"The transition from fee-for-service medicine to accountable care is creating challenges for providers who need agile and actionable analytics tools to optimize their operations, maintain profitability and stay competitive," Hanover said, in a separate comment on the report. "Analytics tools that help providers understand and control operating costs and clinical waste now, while preparing for future care management and accountable care programs, are among the more effective tools in this rapidly changing and evolving market."

Burton commented, "To thrive in an accountable care environment, hospitals and health systems have to be able to quickly organize, visualize and utilize the myriad sources of data that can help them deliver the highest quality of care through the most cost efficient means possible. We are honored that IDC Health Insights, one of the industry's most respected analyst firms, has identified Health Catalyst as a noteworthy solution for healthcare data warehousing and analytics - technology that is imperative for standardizing around the best care and eliminating harmful, ineffective and costly waste from our healthcare system."

About Health Catalyst
Based in Salt Lake City, Health Catalyst (formerly Healthcare Quality Catalyst) delivers a proven, agile data warehouse platform that actually works in today's transforming healthcare environment. Currently, over 20 million patients utilize Health Catalyst's Adaptive Data Warehousing platform and solutions. Founded by healthcare veterans who developed their solution after struggling for years to try to make non-healthcare data warehousing solutions work, the Health Catalyst data warehouse utilizes an adaptive approach designed specifically to address the complex nature of healthcare data. Health Catalyst's platform combines technology solutions and clinical expertise borne out of repeated successful implementations that significantly improved quality of care and reduced healthcare costs. Health Catalyst's proven solutions are deployed at leading health systems including Allina Health, Indiana University Health, MultiCare Health System, North Memorial Health Care, Providence Health & Services, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, and Texas Children's Hospital. For more information, visit www.healthcatalyst.com.