“Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence.” – Dan Chambliss, The Mundanity of Excellence
While Dan is referring to the achievements of competitive swimmers, the same can be said about consistently high-performing healthcare IT consultants.
Let’s use the rapid rise of Epic’s Community Connect program as an example. In this program, health systems live on Epic partner with other healthcare organizations to extend their Epic instance and system build, which creates a common EHR platform. In essence, the first health system becomes a service provider to the other, leveraging its Epic system to create a shared patient record.
No other health IT consulting firm has completed as many Community Connect projects as Nordic. That experience, combined with continued education and a desire to continually improve, is what produces excellence. But what does excellence look like in a Community Connect project?
According to Doug Turner, executive director of IS Rapid-Cycle Deployment at Loma Linda University Medical Center, one of the key performance indicators for the organization's first large Community Connect project was coming in on time and under budget.
That sounds so “mundane,” doesn’t it? But those two key metrics are impossible without the team of experienced Connect consultants supported by over 50 templates and tools developed from years of Community Connect projects, implemented in a manner that considers the unique context and change management challenges these projects contain.
Can you imagine what it takes to “connect” to a county-run organization that includes a 362-bed acute-care hospital, a 77-bed psychiatric facility, and 10 FQHC outpatient clinics? In this first project, Nordic staffed a 34-member team of project managers, application leads, analysts, and trainers to work in partnership with Loma Linda IT team members. Their clinics went live after only 12 months. Maybe you’re considering similar affiliations for your organization. If so, you’ll want to take a look at this brief video.
Doug is excited about the future at Loma Linda, including a new adult hospital and a new children’s hospital. In addition, they're exploring more affiliations within the community. It seems their initial experiences have been excellent, and their future is, indeed, looking bright.
Going to HIMSS17? Visit us at booth 903 and join us for a reception.