The CereCore Podcast

Cyber criminals only have to be right once to wreak havoc. In healthcare, we have to be right 100% of the time to manage the risk of cyberattack. In this episode, we talk to Darcy Corcoran, Principal for Cybersecurity Advisory Services. Hear how she uses her extensive background in the Department of Defense and work with NATO and the Pentagon to inform organization-specific tactics and industry best practices for cybersecurity in healthcare. In their conversation they cover the must haves and explore an often-overlooked aspect of considering AI use cases.

Key topics:  

- Thoughts on cybersecurity in healthcare through lens of extensive cybersecurity background in defense 

- Misconceptions about malicious actors

- Factors to include in cybersecurity strategy

- The AI considerations leaders may overlook

- Leadership responsibilities for cybersecurity in healthcare organizations

Kim Waters

Principal Consultant, Revenue Cycle, CereCore

Many healthcare organizations are facing single digit or negative EBITDA and are searching for strategies to improve profitability, patient care and sustained growth. Examining revenue cycle is often a great place to start because of its far-reaching impact, explains Kim Waters, Principal Consultant for Revenue Cycle at CereCore. In this episode, Kim shares her unique perspective having worked with healthcare leaders in managed services, revenue cycle, payer disciplines and now CereCore clients. Kim explains how her conversational approach uncovers quick wins, identifies root causes, and helps teams navigate complex changes. She brings business acumen and healthcare experience working with a variety of C-suite roles, health system boards of directors, and clinical teams. What common problems warrant an outside perspective? How can you achieve a productive partnership with a consultant? Kim answers these questions and explains why evaluating change readiness is important to innovation. She wraps up the conversation with a client story that highlights the impact care navigation can have on positive financial results for a health system, a patient and their family.

Key topics

- How to derive the most value from a consulting engagement

- Top areas C-suite leaders are looking to improve today

- Data, storytelling and the why behind decisions

- Revenue cycle optimization can be ripe with opportunity

- Care navigation client story: strategy yields savings for health system and patients

Maximizing the investment in an EHR platform is work that’s never really finished, and having the organizational discipline, resources, and mindset to continue pursuing EHR optimization often can feel like a battle. In this episode, we talk with EHR experts Bob Gronberg, Assistant Vice President of MEDITECH Professional Services; John Walsh, Manager of MEDITECH Professional Services; and Stephanie Murray, Senior Director of Epic Services. Hear their strategic approaches for discovering optimization opportunities, common issues facilities face, and how assessments can help leaders prioritize optimizations and uncover root causes. The panel covers a wide range of topics such as managing through education needs and staff turnover, why getting behind on system updates can be costly and what a consistent maintenance and optimization process could look like. Each panelist shares parting words of wisdom based on their passion for healthcare and experience working in the EHR vendor setting and with healthcare leaders and clinicians in health systems across the US and abroad.

Key topics:

- Strategic approaches to EHR optimization and maintenance

- How an EHR optimization assessment works

- Things you can learn from an EHR assessment

- Quick wins and trends from an assessment

- Change management best practices

- Governance, clinical council and budgeting advice

An EHR implementation is a massive project, especially for rural healthcare locations. Ismelda Garza, CIO of Cuero Regional Hospital and senior consultant at CereCore, explains the multi-year journey their hospital has been on to prepare for the transition to a modern EHR like MEDITECH Expanse. What prep work is involved? Ismelda shares practical advice and her experiences in this conversation. Hear more about the importance of infrastructure stability and early collaboration with third party application vendors to head off potential implementation delays and issues. Plus, Ismelda talks about her personal experience building solid relationships with her leadership team colleagues, staff and end users.

Key topics:

- How to prepare for EHR change, from infrastructure and vendors to staff

- The broad impact of technology implementation in a rural setting

- How to build solid C-suite relationships

- EHR investments in rural health

- HIT leadership career journey and passion for rural health

Shahzad Fakhar, HCA Healthcare, Vice President Field Operations – Information Technology Group, discusses innovation and how healthcare IT leaders can help their organizations adopt a mindset of constant innovation, break down silos and leverage partnerships. Preparing for the future, what are some big areas of opportunity for innovation? What should organizations be paying attention to? In this conversation, Shahzad talks about innovations HCA Healthcare is working toward, reflects on what the pandemic taught us about innovation and other lessons gleaned during his 30+ year career working in healthcare IT from rural to metropolitan healthcare settings.

Key topics:

- Navigating internal silos and external pressures that can stifle innovation

- Uncovering opportunities for innovation from patient care documentation to modern EHRs and process automation

- Collaborating effectively across service lines and with partners

- Reflecting on what the COVID-19 pandemic taught us about innovation

- Closing advice around anticipating the future demands of your customers, clinicians, and patients

The physician and IT professional can be radically different personalities and disciplines. What can a healthcare organization do to encourage better collaboration between the two? Dr. Charles Bell, a physician advisor for CereCore, believes that understanding the needs of physicians is the starting point to ease technology frustration and encourage adoption. The other is fostering teamwork. In this conversation, Dr. Bell shares his experiences and practical advice gleaned from the various hats he has worn over the years as pharmacist, physician, chief medical information officer and physician informaticist working with all the major EHR platforms.

Key topics:

- Understanding physician frustration and barriers to technology adoption

- Listening for the underlying message – what is your physician really saying?

- Establishing a framework for multi-disciplinary collaboration and feedback

- Embracing change and fostering teamwork

Looking for more ways to improve your EHR for providers? Explore the comprehensive IT services CereCore provides.

Lynn Falcone, CEO of Cuero Regional Hospital, discusses the unique challenges of running a rural hospital in Texas. In this conversation, Lynn explains why various levels of involvement with the community and advocacy organizations like the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals (TORCH) is essential to the operations and services they provide. She explains how communication from daily patient safety huddles to board of directors meetings encourage continuous improvement and led to the decision to move to the modernized EHR platform MEDITECH Expanse. Lynn shares her expectations for the upcoming EHR implementation project, especially around data and patient care.

Key topics:

- Rural healthcare operations and hospital services in Texas

- Building a strong team

- Upgrading our EHR system

- Patient safety and data

- Starting the EHR journey

The need to optimize is part of the EMR implementation process explains Cory Lane, director of operations at OakLeaf Surgical Hospital. She describes how their processes and collaborative team approach are helping them optimize MEDITECH Expanse on the heels of their go-live. In this conversation, Cory shares why project management, partnership, and cross-departmental engagement are critical for a successful go-live and optimization. Hear practical examples of how they are staying true to their vision for getting more out of their EMR from improved data analytics, workflows and user experience.

Matt Connor is the chief information officer (CIO) for Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust, and they were the first NHS organisation in the UK to go-live on MEDITECH Expanse. Matt talks about their EPR implementation journey with Dan Eyre, vice president of business development for CereCore International. Matt shares what it was like working with CereCore International, tapping into U.K. and U.S. resources, and how the partnership worked, from initial conversations through post go-live. He also dives into lessons learned, early benefits of the modern EPR, and the need for ongoing optimization. Hear Matt’s pearls of wisdom for digital health leaders embarking on a similar EPR transformation.

Anne Hargrave-Thomas, CEO of OakLeaf Surgical Hospital and vice president of operations at Surgery Partners, is a former nurse in healthcare leadership who views technology as a must-have for operations. Anne talks about what’s top of mind for a hospital CEO during an EHR implementation. In this conversation, she walks through OakLeaf’s transition to MEDITECH Expanse and the village it takes for success. Hear her advice on getting the right people involved, communicating well, developing strong partnerships, being present as an executive leader and much more.

Is your healthcare organization planning to transition to MEDITECH Expanse? Does your next large IT project require technical expertise you don’t have? Let’s talk. Our history in healthcare operations and end-to-end healthcare IT services could be a good fit for your organization.