Planning for Community Connect

Community Connect transforms the quality of care landscape for smaller healthcare organizations by extending Epic functionality to smaller facilities that may not have the resources to sustain a full-scale Epic EHR implementation. Instead of taking on the monumental task of implementing an Epic EHR, Community Connect serves as an extension of the large health system to the physician practices or smaller local hospitals. The extended iterations have unique workflows, data, and analysis, but the goal is to keep them as close to identical as possible and extend best practices to the smaller setting. Planning for Community Connect.

As the need to extend EHRs to smaller hospitals and integration with ACOs increases, Community Connect is an option available to many healthcare organizations. Community Connect is a methodology and approach that extends EHR systems to clinics and hospitals with smaller budgets. When planning for Community Connect, it is crucial to understand the impacts of the offering as both the host and receiver, so the process goes smoothly.

Planning for Community Connect requires planning that goes beyond a typical implementation. Each step along the way is essential, so obstacles that cause delays and missteps can be avoided. Some topics that should be discussed are:

1. Data: By expanding your Epic EHR into the community, there will be an influx of new data. How is the PHI protected? Who OWNS the data?
2. Costs: Has the appropriate Stark Law research been done to identify how costs will be allocated? What additional costs are there concerning setting up and maintaining a Community Connect program?
3. Infrastructure: Have you appropriately scoped out your network, infrastructure, hardware, and storage needs?
4. Implementation: Who is going to be involved in the implementation? Will the staff and providers from your new affiliate practices be involved?
5. Timeline: Has a plan been put in place that defines the implementation schedule? Who will be participating?
6. Users: How are you planning on supporting the partner staff?

Be sure to join Optimum Healthcare IT on November 4, 2020, for an informative webinar entitled Planning, Implementing, & Managing a Community Connect Program. We will discuss many topics, including the items listed above. Learn more and save your seat by clicking the related content on the right.