Community Health Network · Healthcare · Indianapolis, IN · 18 weeks
Self-service analytics deployed to 340 clinical staff
Community Health Network’s analytics team handled 120 ad-hoc report requests weekly from clinical staff, which used up four of every five working days. We created a self-service analytics layer in Tableau for 340 clinical users, allowing them to generate their own reports. This reduced ad-hoc requests to 14 per week.
Challenge
The 8-person analytics team spent four of every five working days handling ad-hoc report requests from clinical and operational staff. With 120 requests weekly and a six-day average turnaround, clinical managers relied on outdated data to make staffing and scheduling decisions.
Approach
We interviewed 40 clinical managers to find their 20 most common questions. Then, we created a Tableau self-service platform with 20 verified data sources and 35 starter dashboards focused on staffing, patient flow, quality metrics, and supply use. Over four weeks, we led eight training sessions for 340 clinical staff to ensure proper adoption.
Outcome
Ad-hoc report requests fell from 120 to 14 per week within six weeks. This gave the analytics team back four of every five working days for strategic projects. Annual labor costs for these reports dropped from $890K to $124K.
We grabbed the main players and hashed out clear, doable requirements before jumping into development.
We started by sitting down with 40 clinical managers over three weeks. Our mission was simple: figure out the 20 questions they ask the most. Guess what? Those 20 questions accounted for 1,700 out of 2,000 random requests every month. So instead of guessing, we built the tool around what really mattered to them.
We ditched the messy raw tables and brought in clean, verified data. That way, everything’s way more accurate and trustworthy.
Here’s how we tackled it: we built a self-service layer that connects 20 certified data sources, all tightly governed and secure. The clinical team jumps in there to pull trusted data, no more sifting through messy raw tables. This way, their reports always line up perfectly with what our analytics folks call the official numbers.
How We Figured Out the Exact Skills We Needed to Sharpen
We ran eight training sessions, around 90 minutes each, over four weeks. The group? Clinical managers, department heads, and power users. But we didn’t just chat theory, we dove into real data the whole time. Out of 340 folks who joined, 309 were up and running solo within a month. Pretty solid turnout!
Results
- $890K Annual ad-hoc labor saved
- 120 to 14 Weekly ad-hoc requests
- 340 Clinical staff self-sufficient
- 18 wks From kickoff to full deployment
We used to get hit with around 120 ad-hoc requests every week, which meant no time for strategic work. Now, it’s dropped to 14, and the clinical staff are answering their own questions.