When you’re in the middle of a healthcare merger, it can be a massive undertaking to combine all your reports and information assets. Fortunately, a data catalog makes the process faster, easier, and less chaotic.
Here’s a look at why.
You might have 20,000 reports to wade through.
If you’re like most healthcare organizations, your report team has been filling requests on a daily basis—for years. By the time you bring two organizations together, you could have thousands of reports floating around. And without a way to keep track of them, all the time, strategy, and coding you’ve invested could be lost in the shuffle.
Find what you need, starting on day one.
What if your CFO asks for an enterprise-wide report on overtime rates during the first week of your merger? If you don’t have a data catalog in place, your data teams will have two options: They can run around trying to figure out if a similar report has already been built by either organization. Or they can recode a new report from scratch—which would require 10-20 hours of valuable time.
Repeat this process once or twice, and your data team will barely be able to tackle any new projects—they’ll be too busy finding or recreating old ones.
With a healthcare data catalog in place, everyone is more productive.
The good news is if one or both healthcare organizations have a data catalog before they merge—or if you put one in place while the merger is underway—everyone will be able to find reports as easily as they can find the closest burger place.
Even the CFO.
Here are three ways a healthcare data catalog can help you in the case of a merger or acquisition:
1. You’ll know what you have, and where to find it.
With a healthcare data catalog like Compendium, people from either organization can simply search for and find any reports that have already been created. They can contact the owner of that report with any questions, make updates as needed, and—done.
Instead of reinventing the wheel with every report, Compendium helps you leverage the information assets you’ve already created.
2. You’ll have a clear picture of your data assets.
Every leader understands they’ll need to know what physical assets they have once the two organizations merge. But having a clear inventory of your digital assets is just as important as knowing how many MRIs and operating rooms you have.
After all, creating and coding a single report from scratch, depending on its complexity, can take dozens of hours to complete. It’s a valuable asset you won’t want to lose.
With a data catalog, you’ll not only be able to quickly understand what you have in both individual organizations, you’ll also be better prepared to merge it all together.
Do you know what reports your expanded organization has? Do you know how many different data sources they’re pulling from? Or what those data sources are and what kind of linkages exist? A data catalog answers questions like these at the touch of a button.
3. You’ll also know the status of any data migrations.
Merging the EMRs of both organizations is a gargantuan effort, and the reporting component is no small part of that. A data catalog will help everyone keep track of the status of that migration. You’ll be able to quickly see what reports are currently being migrated, what’s in the queue, what doesn’t need migrating, etc.
How can you know if a healthcare data catalog is right for you?
Whether your healthcare organization is planning for a merger, in the middle of one, or not sure what lies ahead, the Compendium Healthcare Data Catalog can help you be more productive and more prepared.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do we have more than 500 reports?
If so, a data catalog would be especially valuable and important in your case. If you only have a couple hundred reports, you may be able to continue doing the work by hand. - Does our reporting team have more than five people?
If so, this is an indication that you’re producing a lot of reports and analytics, and a data catalog would make your team a lot more productive—whether you’re facing a merger or not.
Compendium is the only data catalog that’s built by healthcare experts for healthcare organizations like yours. If a merger could be on the horizon for you—or if one is already underway—be sure you put the Compendium Healthcare Data Catalog in place, and avoid the frustrations of missing data, lost time, and incomplete information.
Want to make sure your merger goes smoothly?
Compendium keeps healthcare organizations productive before, during, and after a merger—with hands-on support and powerful self-serve data tools. Learn more.
