Community Connect

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Extending EHRs to your full ecosystem

Extending your EHR to independent physicians and healthcare partners requires planning and expertise beyond a typical implementation. Affiliates often convey concerns about loss of autonomy during these transitions—but at the same time, they want a world-class EHR: yours. That is where we can help. 

Whether you are just getting started, growing rapidly and trying to keep up, or expanding beyond traditional care settings, our unique approach is grounded in comprehensive planning, scalability, people-first strategies, and continuous improvement. We will dig right in to align the many stakeholders, set realistic expectations, and address the nuances of affiliate demands and education needs. Most of all, we will ensure your Connect model delivers immediate value to your organization and your partners while avoiding delays.

 

THE NORDIC DIFFERENCE: A LEADING COMMUNITY CONNECT EXTENSION TEAM

A strong foundation

Streamline your rollout strategy with a proven program model and pricing structure that sets the stage for a successful system extension. Comprehensive planning helps establish and affirm your organization as a Community Connect vendor known for maintaining strong affiliate relationships. Trust us to get you off to the right start. With more than 65 Community Connect clients, we know the recipe for building a powerful offering.

Deployment and scale

Deploy your Community Connect model with the confidence of knowing it will grow and evolve as you do. We will guide you from strategy through post-live support—we know how to analyze, build, and test a strong system; educate and prepare end users for operational and workflow changes; and bring your organization live with a process that focuses on ensuring end user and system readiness. Flexible options for scalable maintenance and ongoing support help your program stay resilient for whatever comes next.

People-first engagement

Get meaningful buy-in and engagement with our people-first model. After all, extending your EHR is more than just delivering a system—it is about building relationships, too. We adapt Community Connect initiatives to address the individual needs of users, offering guidance, tools, and specialized expertise to strengthen your program for the most scrutinizing of stakeholder groups.

Continuous improvement

Advance and improve your Community Connect program after deployment with continuous engagement and enhancement options. From incremental adjustments in pricing structures to new training materials and more, we will monitor the data and identify real-time opportunities to respond to your partners' evolving needs, as well as your own.
 
 

Why healthcare leaders choose Nordic

Community Connect implementations may be a systems change—but healthcare organizations turn to us because we understand the human implications.

On the other end of every new affiliate relationship is someone potentially concerned about losing control. They have used their current system their way for years, and using a host's new model may seem intimidating and uncomfortable. Those are all valid concerns, which is why we approach these projects with trust, transparency, and a willingness to listen.

Our people-first method gives everyone a voice to establish expectations, drive alignment, and restore shared confidence among hosts and affiliates alike. We believe that good governance is inclusive and that regular communication creates value for everyone. With that ethos in mind, our 4-step methodology delivers a people-centric approach for optimal engagement and uptake.

 

"Together, we executed the Community Connect strategy we outlined, focusing on ACO partners we serve. Our collaborative partnership with Nordic will allow us to support the program long-term."

- Shane Thielman, Scripps CIO

How Nordic streamlines EHR Community Connect extensions

OUR 4-STEP METHODOLOGY FOSTERS LASTING SUCCESS BETWEEN AFFILIATES AND HOSTS

Our 4-step Community Connect extension methodology offers a flexible framework that can be followed in full or customized to fit your current needs. More than offering just another project plan, we adapt our programs and documentation to map back to each step, including the crucial phases leading up to delivery and beyond. And that part—beyond—is critical. Instead of just focusing on today's needs, we have got our sights on tomorrow's, too. When you work with us, you will get a proven playbook, from the initial idea through deployment and post-live, to ensure faster and lasting success. Here is what to expect:

Part 1: Strategy
We guide you through initial strategy development, which creates the foundation for your Epic Connect program. With upfront components including your program objectives, offering scope, pricing structure, and contracting assessed and mapped out, you will have a more streamlined path toward extension planning in the short- and long-term.

Part 2: Planning
Whether you are going live with six end users or 600, you will want to prepare and standardize not just your project plans and checklists but also your systems and processes for engaging new partners. With a guided blueprint in place, we help you identify opportunities for extension as well as complete preemptive planning for upcoming projects.

Part 3: Deployment
With the strategy defined and planning completed, you will be ready for the successful deployment of your new system. Nordic's consultants draw on a proprietary toolkit paired with experience in multiple applications, specialties, and projects. In this essential step, we will hit the ground running to build, test, train, and engage your partners for a more successful and seamless go-live.

Part 4: Support and optimize
You have put so much energy, effort, and resources into deployment, so the last thing you need is for your investments to devolve post-live. We provide ongoing managed services to give affiliates the high-touch support and responsiveness they expect at a predictable cost. So when you simply do not have the bandwidth or staff to take on new affiliates, while meeting existing service-level agreements, we will fill the gaps with partial or full account management, post-live education, and other post-deployment needs.

Throughout this 4-step journey, we protect and preserve legacy data at every juncture. Nordic partners with Galen Healthcare Solutions to provide data conversion and archival solutions to help your affiliates retire legacy systems with confidence. We will migrate and archive data to Galen's VitalCenter Online platform to satisfy legal retention requirements and ensure continuity of care. With this conversion, data will be easily accessible in the new system with one click.

Our people-first method for Community Connect planning gives everyone a voice to estabilish expectations, drive alignment, and restore shared confidence among hosts and affiliates alike. We believe that good governance is inclusive and that regular communication creates value for everyone.

Unmatched experience with Epic Community Connect

Before Community Connect was Community Connect, it was Epic's 48-hour install methodology, and we have an original member of the team who created Connect leading our Implementation Services division. We pair extension projects with a hand-picked panel of expert engagement advisors across diverse specialties: inpatient, ambulatory, access, revenue cycle management, operations, clinical leaders, and more.

 
 
THE NORDIC DIFFERENCE
 
65+
EPIC EXTENSION CLIENTS
300
CONSULTANTS WITH EXTENSION EXPERIENCE
160+
TOOLS & TEMPLATES AND A PROVEN METHODOLOGY
 

Are you an independent partner?

If you are in the process of selecting a new EHR and need to evaluate your options, considering or already live with Epic Community Connect, or a large physician group considering Epic Garden Plot, we can help you, too. We guide affiliates through implementation planning, change management, education and training, and ongoing host-site relationship management needs. With experience and familiarity working with both sides of the affiliate-host relationship, we are your ideal partner for ongoing success.

Tools and insights for greater agility

 

THE NORDIC TOOLKIT

Discover why the Nordic Toolkit is one of the best ways to accelerate the value of your Community Connect implementation. Our proprietary Toolkit contains over 160 documentation tools and templates that serve as a powerful starting point for developing and implementing Connect programs, no matter what shape they take. Armed with the expertise and unwavering support of our experienced team and the tools and templates in the Toolkit, your organization will be well-set for a successful EHR extension that delivers impact now and in the future.

 

A 360° VIEW

At Nordic, we take a bird’s-eye view of every EHR extension project - and in turn, we help organizations on both sides of the affiliate-host relationship. Whether you are expanding your system to new providers or adopting one from another health system, we know how to address challenges and accelerate value from planning to deployment and beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Education as a service

One of the biggest concerns for Community Connect extensions is consistency. As a host, how do you maintain system adoption and proficiency from site to site? Let us help: We standardize and templatize training and tools so that hosts can deliver cohesive and user-specific education to affiliates. With these education as a service offerings, you will always have training that scales with your affiliate ecosystem.

A global perspective

Nordic is a global company, serving organizations throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle East with many different models and unique challenges. Global healthcare leaders can take advantage of Nordic's Community Connect expertise that provides access to global technology and local strategies and resources for a successful EHR extension, no matter where you are in the world.

Those seeking EHR extension services in Canada will find Healthtech, a Nordic Global Company, which has been providing exceptional service for Canadian healthcare groups for over 30 years. With this extensive knowledge and experience, Healthtech works closely with Nordic as a top provider of clinical and IT transformation projects in Canada.

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Lindsey Manzuk, Doug Turner, and Jeffrey Goggans

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The role of EHR extensions in enhancing patient care

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Let´s Connect

VIDEO

Creating a successful Community Connect program

Learn about Nordic's approach to implementing and optimizing Epic Community Connect.


Scott Isaacson

SUCCESS STORIES

Nordic, Scripps partner for successful Community project from strategy through implementation

Learn More

“We found Nordic to be professional, efficient, knowledgeable, and engaging. With their assistance, we have been able to create a Connect program that will allow Middlesex Health to partner with our independent community providers to improve the care of our community."

- David Cosentino, MLD, CMIO, Middlesex Health, Middletown, CT


Extend your Community Connect program more efficiently and effectively.


 

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