Blog

Top 5 Tips for Maximizing Epic Community Connect Partnerships

January 24, 2020

Epic Community Connect provides opportunities for healthcare providers to maximize the value of their EHR IT investments. It promotes a community record for the host and its affiliates, provides access to the industry-leading EHR to a broad range of organizations, supports regulatory compliance and enhances patient experience.

There are many reasons why healthcare organizations are investing in Community Connect programs. Whether it’s strategic growth or getting ahead of the competition, Community Connect can be leveraged in many different ways. Here are our top insights on how to successfully implement Community Connect.

Have an aligned organizational vision for Community Connect goals.

For some organizations, Community Connect is foundational to their growth, and in many cases, it can be a precursor to an acquisition. It is important to have the program take up the vast majority of the organization’s institutional focus, resources and effort.

Establish governance.

Organizations should understand what the three to five year trajectory is to be able to set up the relationship the right way, regardless of if they scale differently than their partners.

Communicate the vision to the organization.

It is important organizations align the staffing model and methodology to the core mission.

Fully assess and understand the “why.”

It is important to do plenty of due diligence up front. The most successful connects are the ones that implement full assessment work to make sure that they are going into the partnership fully understanding the why, and also understanding where the synergies are between the two organizations.

Focus on success.

Enlist partners who are able to help accomplish organizational goals. This is key because organizations should build partnerships that add value and set up the organization for success.

Get support for your Community Connect partnership initiative.

Joe Clemons, Managing Director, Engagement Management, Data Analytics & ERP

Joe contributes practical experience and guidance to his clients through his advisory and ERP practice leadership role at Pivot Point Consulting.

Joe brings over 17 years’ experience in healthcare IT strategy, EHR and ERP planning and implementation, merger and acquisition execution, process improvement, change management and organizational development. His expertise intersects the clinical components of the EHR with the business components of ERP to drive organizational strategy and value. He routinely contributes to industry articles, podcasts and video interviews and the development of methodology and best practices. Joe serves on the Oregon Chapter of HIMSS Board of Directors as the Sponsorship Chair. He holds a BS in Healthcare Administration.

Zack Tisch, Vice President, Strategic Growth

Zack is a dynamic healthcare IT executive leader with 15 years’ experience in leading complex, integrated healthcare information technology projects at some of the nation’s leading healthcare institutions, such as Cedars-Sinai, MD Anderson Cancer Center, UCLA Health and Stanford Heath Care. He is passionate about maximizing value out of the EHR systems to provide efficient, effective patient care.

In his role leading Strategic Growth for clients, Zack focuses on architecting high value solutions to enable client growth as well as process and resource optimization. Zack is a former Epic employee and is certified in 15 Epic applications. He is also a PMP. Zack received his BA from Duke University and has completed Executive MBA Coursework at UCLA and the University of Texas.