About

About The Forest and Trees

The Forest and Trees is a healthcare data consultancy led by Kevin W. Thornton. We work with healthcare organizations nationwide–health systems, practices, digital health and health tech companies, and pharmacy and life sciences organizations. Kevin has experience across a range of care delivery settings; we emphasize rural and critical access hospitals and health systems because that is where we see the greatest impact.

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Kevin W. Thornton

Founder, The Forest and Trees

With more than 15 years in healthcare data and thirty years of technical experience, Kevin helps leaders connect operational priorities to practical strategy, governance, and analytics.

What Clients Say

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Founded on Operational + Technical Expertise

Kevin saw a gap: healthcare organizations need consultants who understand both operations and data technology–without the overhead of large firms.

The Forest and Trees was created to fill that gap. Our name reflects how we work: seeing the forest (strategy and priorities) while ensuring each tree (data asset, metric, and process) is governed and trustworthy.

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

Clients come to us for realistic expectations, clear communication between operational and technical teams, and solutions that last.

  • 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 this list sounds familiar, you are not alone. These growing pains show up in hospitals, digital health platforms, and pharmacy organizations alike–and we help teams address them step by step.