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Centralised Report Counter
Centralised Report Counter
One of the questions that often comes up as healthcare organizations look to get more deeply
into data analytics is whether their reporting functions should be centralized or decentralized.
The answer I usually give is:
“YES!!”
At Health Catalyst we believe in a concept touted by Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of
Netflix, refers to as “highly aligned, loosely coupled.” Highly aligned means everyone shares
the same strategic goals–team interactions are focused on strategies. Loosely coupled means
different groups have the flexibility to approach tactics differently as needed.
The approach is much like the offense on an NFL team (A National football league team).
The coaching staff develops a game plan and the overall strategic approach the team will take
to win the game. However, during the game, the offensive and defensive coordinators call the
plays according to the game plan. That is highly aligned.
Suppose at the line of scrimmage the quarterback sees a certain defensive formation and
realizes there is a better opportunity available. He has the freedom to call an audible and
make a tactical decision that is still highly aligned with the team’s overall strategy.
Loosely coupled means different groups have the flexibility to approach tactics differently as
needed.
Suppose at the line of scrimmage the quarterback sees a certain defensive formation and
realizes there is a better opportunity available. He has the freedom to call an audible and
make a tactical decision that is still highly aligned with the team’s overall strategy.
The purpose of analytics in a healthcare organization is to create insights that help achieve
strategic goals. Analysts are the conduits that collect various data points from different
sources that allow no analysts understand and act on it. The tactics they use depend on the
organizational structure.
One is a centralized model, where the analytics group is its own entity, independent of any
particular group.
In a decentralized model, the analysts work directly for the different groups or departments.
Each of these models has its pros and cons; the pros of one are usually the con of the other.
Let’s look a little more deeply at each to see where their strengths and weaknesses lie– and
why a hybrid of the two tends to work best.
Centralized Reporting Pros
The centralized model has many advantages. Overall, if you had to choose a single approach, this
would be recommended based on our experience with both. The strengths of the centralized model
follow:
Flexibility
Organizations that use a centralized approach can shift resources where and when they’re
needed; those with a decentralized approach cannot.