MultiCare, Health Catalyst sign shared-risk agreement

MultiCare Health System, serving the Tacoma region in Washington with five hospitals and 130 other locations, has used data analytics technology from Health Catalyst since 2010, but now is significantly expanding the relationship.

The delivery system has a new agreement with the vendor that gives access to its entire technology portfolio. It also has signed what is called a “significant” professional services agreement under which MultiCare and Health Catalyst will work toward achieving $25 million of measurable improvements annually via a dedicated team of data architects, analysts and improvement experts. Four MultiCare employees will join Health Catalyst while still working on-site.

Under the contract, Health Catalyst has agreed to put part of the professional services agreement at risk, with payment levels tied to the achievement of annual improvement goals. Further, MultiCare invested in the vendor during a recently round of funding.

Health Catalyst has similar at-risk agreements with Partners HealthCare and Allina Health.

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MultiCare’s previous contract with Health Catalyst was designed to govern individual institutional projects, such as an initiative to improve pneumonia care enterprisewide, under which the delivery system reduced the mortality rate by 16 percent, slashed the readmission rate for pneumonia patients by 24 percent and achieved a 2 percent decrease in average length of stay.

The new agreement moves away from a traditional vendor-client relationship to a partnership that includes an executive governance team of leaders from both organizations who will prioritize work projects and align them with specific strategic objectives, a MultiCare spokesperson said.