The leadership team at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis relies on an executive dashboard for real-time insights into performance and profitability. But they were running into issues.
The problem wasn’t the dashboard. It was the metrics.
The challenge Hennepin Healthcare was having is the same many healthcare organizations have: Their metrics were coming from a half-dozen sources; they weren’t consistently defined, labeled, or “owned” by anyone; and they were often producing conflicting results.
“When the dashboard would show that we weren’t meeting a metric, the next question was why? And what do we need to do about it?” says Becky Kohler, Hennepin Healthcare’s Director of Informatics and Analytics. Finding those answers could be incredibly difficult—and the process of doing so was prone to errors.
So Hennepin Healthcare’s data team jumped in with a surprisingly quick—and robust—solution from Compendium, called the Healthcare Metric Hub, which ensures instant access to reliable information, with full transparency behind every number.
“It’s the fastest we’ve ever gone on a project.”
Compendium made it easy for Hennepin Healthcare’s data team to move quickly. Here’s a look at some of the ways Hennepin Healthcare made the Metric Hub a success:
They rolled it out over time.
Instead of having to launch everything in one big release, Compendium’s Healthcare Metric Hub is designed to support an iterative process. Hennepin Healthcare’s data team held daily scrums and worked in two-week sprints, adding verified metrics to the Metric Hub as they went—with the touch of a button. “It’s helped keep us focused and on task,” says Kim O’Brien, Information Architect at Hennepin Healthcare.
They standardized definitions.
This process has led to some important conversations within the organization. Once a consensus is reached on what a metric means, the definitions and code are easily added to the Metric Hub—and all dashboards and reporting tools are linked to this single, consistent source.
They added metadata.
Every metric now includes consistent information within the Metric Hub, including how the metric is defined, the last time it was updated, and who owns it. “If there’s a question about a metric, it’s given us a good spot to go back and say, ‘Well, here’s the data steward and here’s how they defined it,’” says Deb.
They relied on Compendium for support.
The Compendium team of data consultants worked with Hennepin Healthcare closely through every step of the process. “With all the different sources that we needed to pull in, it was a bit overwhelming,” says Melissa Stahley, Hennepin Healthcare’s lead data analyst. “But with Compendium’s help we’ve been able to really push forward.”
“They’ve been very flexible and very responsive to the needs that we’ve had,” she adds. “I think that’s certainly helped our ability to move as fast as we have on this project.”
The Metric Hub has been game-changing.
Now that Hennepin Healthcare’s executives are confident that the metrics they’re seeing have been vetted—and they can easily find more information when they need it—they’re able to collaborate on the fly.
“It’s allowed for people to be able to drill into the data and have good conversations,” says Deb.
The Compendium Metric Hub is also saving time for Hennepin Healthcare’s data team.
“We are set up for the future— to make things easier for ourselves,” says Melissa. The plan is to be able to retire “clunky, complex reports” and efficiently manage and update metrics from one centralized location.
Need help harnessing your healthcare metrics? Compendium provides smart strategy, hands-on support, and self-serve tools for today’s healthcare organizations. Learn more.
