The workflow before#
Circle of Care serves more than 3,000 children across Texas with over 275 therapists, and much of its growth came through acquisition. Every practice it bought arrived with its own medical records, insurance eligibility, claims and payroll systems. Finance stitched them together by hand each month. The close took 20 to 25 days, a full set of reports took one to two weeks, and 15 to 20% of records needed manual correction along the way. Folding a new practice into reporting took three to six months. Recruiting had its own drag: with candidates and credentials tracked loosely, hiring a therapist took 45 to 60 days, and every open seat meant children waiting for care.
What we built#
We built one data model for the whole organization on Google Cloud. Every practice's clinical, claims, payroll and financial data flows into shared tables for patients, therapists, sessions and revenue, all using the same definitions. Finance and operations now read the same numbers from the same dashboards, and an acquired practice maps into the model instead of becoming another spreadsheet to reconcile.
One definition of every number
dbt models in BigQuery turn each source into the shared patient, therapist, session and revenue tables. We started with a data strategy and roadmap so the definitions were agreed by finance and operations before we wrote the models. That's what lets a session mean the same thing in a billing report and a staffing report.
Dashboards finance and operations share
Power BI dashboards sit directly on BigQuery, with row-level security so each leader sees the practices they run. Month-end stops being a reconciliation exercise. The close dropped from 20 to 25 days to 5 to 7, and records needing manual correction fell below 3%.
A repeatable path for acquisitions
New practices map into the same models through the same pipelines. We designed it this way because acquisition is how Circle of Care grows, so onboarding a practice needed to be routine work. Integration now takes 4 to 6 weeks instead of 3 to 6 months.
A recruiting tool for therapists
Recruiters search candidates by skills, credentials and location in a faceted search tool, with credential and license tracking alongside. They find qualified therapists faster and stop chasing paperwork by email. Time to hire dropped from 45 to 60 days to 25 to 35.
How we delivered it
The engagement ran about 36 weeks, from strategy and roadmap through production rollout. We built the core data layer first, then rolled dashboards out to finance and operations, and added the recruiting tool alongside. Each acquired practice brought into the model became the template for the next one.
Before and after#
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly financial close | 20 to 25 days | 5 to 7 days |
| Integrating an acquired practice | 3 to 6 months | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Therapist time to hire | 45 to 60 days | 25 to 35 days |
| Records needing manual correction | 15 to 20% | Under 3% |
What's next#
With clinical, claims, payroll and finance data in one governed model, Circle of Care can put AI on top of it. Two natural next steps are an analytics assistant that lets operators ask questions of their own practices, and a model that flags claims likely to be denied so the billing team can fix them before submission.
