About The Forest and Trees
The Forest and Trees is a healthcare data consultancy founded and led by Kevin Thornton, specializing in helping small and medium healthcare systems–especially rural and community-based organizations–build sustainable data capabilities.
Founded on Operational + Technical Expertise
With more than a decade of healthcare data experience and thirty years of technical expertise, Kevin saw a consistent gap in the market: healthcare organizations need consultants who understand both clinical operations and data technology–without the overhead and inflexibility of large consulting firms.
The Forest and Trees was created to fill that gap.
Our Approach
We believe in right-sized solutions delivered by the right people:
- For focused projects, you work directly with experienced leadership
- For larger initiatives, we assemble specialist teams tailored to your needs
- For long-term partnerships, we provide consistent strategic guidance
We compete on expertise and understanding, not just price. Our clients value realistic expectations, clear communication between operational and technical stakeholders, and sustainable solutions.
- Inconsistent reporting
- Differences in the same measure between report runs
- Differences in naming between reports
- Using the same name between different reports to mean different things
- Different ways to calculate the same measure
- Struggles meeting regulatory requirements
- Multiple data silos within an organization
- Undocumented, missing, or inconsistent data processes
- Lack of clear ownership of data (accountability or responsibility)
- Disconnected Subject Matter Experts
- Unprotected PII hiding in reports
- Former employees still having access to certain tools months or years after leaving
- Disagreements between different groups in how to store or represent data
- Paying for multiple sources of data that duplicate each other
- Paying for data services that are not being used or could be done separately cheaper
If these challenges sound familiar, you’re not alone–and they’re not signs of failure. They’re normal growing pains. The difference is having partners who can help you address them systematically.
None of these are signs of a bad organization, just a busy organization that has grown over time, and are what we would consider normal growing pains. However, since they are so common and we have seen them so many times, we want to help organizations find and fix them.