Hospital seeks to integrate EHR across multiple locations

Challenge

Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital (Schoolcraft), a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) with rural health clinics and several locations, was using multiple electronic health records (EHR) that did not integrate. Continuity of care was manual and the workflow for providers was cumbersome. The hospital leadership team had selected a new integrated EHR with Cerner CommunityWorks and recognized the implementation effort and change management were important to the success of the project.

Approach

BerryDunn’s team of objective healthcare consultants:

• Negotiated a software contract with milestones, acceptance criteria, cure provisions, clear scope, and provisions to support the hospital’s interests. 
• Provided project management and oversight for a successful implementation. This included assisting with testing, training, go live planning, risk management, and issue resolution.
• Planned and assisted in the running of the go-live command center for two weeks of live operation. This included rounding to departments, issue documentation and resolution, and the coordination of at the elbow support. 
• Monitored project progress, health, and go live readiness through BerryDunn’s project health survey process. This helped management to understand the project health and quickly take actions to make improvements. 
• Conducted post go-live consulting and support. This included helping Schoolcraft to navigate through the stages of triage, stabilize, and optimize, holding weekly workflow optimization and knowledge building sessions since go live. This has streamlined the use of Cerner and boosted provider, nurse, and end user knowledge. 
• Assisted Schoolcraft in advancing their governance and informatics functions for the new EHR. This included helping to design the role and function of informatics and the effective design of clinical and revenue cycle teams. 

Outcomes

By recognizing the need for a deliberate and structured approach to the implementation, Schoolcraft was able to drive forward the implementation efficiently. By proactively focusing on risks, issues, and change management, they were able to make changes before those risks and issues negatively impacted the implementation and successfully went live on schedule. By focusing on workflow, optimization, and knowledge building they have quickly transitioned from the go-live triage period to optimization and adoption of the new EHR.