From 2011 to 2025, JTS Health Partners served as a trusted, long-standing Epic implementation consulting partner to Ballad Health, guiding the organization through multiple successive phases of complex technology transformation. That enduring relationship entered an ambitious new chapter when Ballad launched Epic Phase II, a sweeping, enterprise-wide rollout of four new modules across 26 facilities simultaneously.
Here's how JTS helped Ballad deliver this demanding rollout on schedule, while also decisively modernizing a fragile legacy system that had long constrained the organization's operational agility.
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Who is Ballad Health?
Ballad Health is an integrated community health improvement organization serving nearly one million people across 29 counties throughout the scenic Appalachian Highlands of Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Northwest North Carolina and Southeast Kentucky. The organization operates 20 hospitals, alongside a comprehensive range of post-acute and behavioral health services and a large, multi-specialty group physician practice, collaborating closely with an independent medical community and dedicated regional stakeholders to advance the health and well-being of the communities it serves. With that scale and complexity comes one of the most demanding and high-stakes IT environments in the region, one where sweeping system changes must be executed flawlessly and without ever disrupting patient care.
What Challenges Did Ballad Health Face Before Partnering With JTS?
Ballad's internal IT organization, though staffed by a lean and relatively early-career team, was already operating at full capacity when the scope of Epic Phase II became clear. The rollout demanded the simultaneous, coordinated go-live of four distinct clinical areas: Willow Ambulatory, Dorothy Comfort Home Health and Hospice, Long-Term Care and Rehabilitation.
Successfully executing this rollout required specialized Epic, Cloverleaf and business intelligence expertise that Ballad simply didn't have in-house. JTS stepped in to fill those critical gaps, allowing Ballad's internal team to remain fully focused on supporting essential day-to-day operations.
A second, more precarious challenge loomed as well. Ballad had long relied on an internally built custom integration engine of the Microsoft .NET Framework. The risk to the organization was unacceptably high to rely on the further development of the tool even though it had served them well.
"We had a very young team here on the Ballad side," said Daniel Barbrow, IT Manager at Ballad Health. "We definitely needed more help at the time and specific knowledge in those areas that we were rolling out."
Why Did Ballad Health Choose JTS Health Partners?
Before partnering with JTS for the full rollout, Ballad had attempted the use of two consultants from another firm to help prepare for and execute the needed technical workload. Barbrow spent six to eight arduous months to achieve results with them, but the engagement never truly came together. Their technical experience fell short of what Ballad had been promised, and the project stalled rather than progressed.
Ballad ultimately ended that engagement and turned back to JTS, a firm it had trusted implicitly since 2011. The difference was immediate and unmistakable.
"JTS consultants completed more in their first six weeks with us than the other two consultants from the other firm did in six months," Barbrow said.
For Kyle Smith, Senior Director of Applications at Ballad Health, the reason came down to how thoughtfully JTS builds its teams. Rather than pulling 
from a rotating pool of interchangeable contractors, JTS relies on a proven model built specifically for organizations like Ballad that value durable, long-term relationships over transient, short-term placements. The JTS Project Manager worked closely with Barbrow to staff the team to include exactly the expertise needed to achieve expected or above expected results. The firm consistently staffs its engagements with more seasoned, dedicated consultants who bring genuine continuity to the work. Smith echoed this distinction directly:
"Another positive about JTS is that their model tends to provide more seasoned and dedicated resources for organizations like us who have a tendency to have a long-term relationship with consultants."
How Did JTS Modernize Ballad's Integration Engine?
The aging integration engine represented one of the single greatest risks Ballad faced, a fragile, custom-built system with no vendor behind it and no clear path to support.
"That is what the two contracted resources from the other company started, and then JTS pushed that across the finish line," Barbrow said. "We wrote all the code, we tested it, and we scheduled a cutover and got it done."
JTS methodically migrated Ballad's interfaces to Cloverleaf, carefully rewriting each existing interface, rigorously testing it and resolving the many dependencies tied to connected applications. Once every piece was thoroughly validated and ready, the team scheduled a precise, well-orchestrated cutover.
Remarkably, the transition caused no disruption whatsoever for the application teams relying on those interfaces. Their systems kept running seamlessly, and in many cases, the people depending on them never even realized the underlying integration engine had changed.
For Ballad, the result was the long-overdue retirement of a system that had become risky to maintain. The interfaces now run reliably on its Cloverleaf engine.
How Did JTS Keep the Epic Phase II Project on Schedule?
A project of this magnitude required disciplined, hands-on management of the day-to-day pace of work and Ballad's leadership credited JTS' rigorous project management approach as central to the engagement's overall success. One Interface Analyst was a key member of the JTS team on this engagement and was specifically singled out as instrumental in keeping the project firmly on track.
"She was a really gifted interface analyst, a real problem solver," Barbrow said. "She was a project manager who got things done, and I really appreciated her drive and her approach to other teams in keeping things moving."
The lead Interface Engineers were stand-out in their expertise and depth of experience which served to provide speed to success without any trial and
error. Smith observed the same dedication reflected across the broader team:
"The type of consultants that JTS provided allowed us to address the large-scale book of work that we had and meet the required timelines."
Heather Lewis, Senior Director, IT Applications at Ballad Health, pointed to the genuine depth of the relationship itself as a decisive factor in that success.
"JTS treated resources like they were employees," Lewis said. "It wasn't like I'm just here for a short-term engagement — they treated it as a true long-term relationship, and I appreciate that. The collaboration JTS had with us got us over many roadblocks."
What Did JTS Deliver for Ballad Health's Epic Phase II Project?
The work extended well beyond simply bringing four new Epic modules live. JTS also meaningfully strengthened Ballad's interface architecture and business intelligence capabilities, while substantially improving the underlying processes supporting data exchange and reporting. Key results included:
- Delivered an on-time, remarkably "quiet" go-live for the full Epic Phase II implementation, including Dorothy Comfort, Willow Ambulatory, Long-Term Care and Rehabilitation, along with supporting application build and system modifications for Epic OpTime, Anesthesia and Ambulatory
- Completed two full Cloverleaf engine migrations, including thoughtful architectural optimization and complete retirement of an unsupported, high-risk legacy integration engine
- Achieved a dramatic reduction in interface errors through carefully designed process and
Read the full results in the Ballad Health case study.
procedure improvements, with full buy-in from IS management and analyst teams alike
- Enabled a robust three-state web immunization interface and significantly enhanced electronic lab reporting capabilities
- Migrated and expanded business intelligence and reporting capabilities across four service lines using SlicerDicer and Epic report builders
- Rated JTS a perfect 10 out of 10 in both service quality and project management
Why Does Ballad Health Continue to Partner With JTS?
Beyond the impressive technical execution, Smith said he especially valued how transparently JTS handled the relationship day-to-day. When the firm didn't have exactly the right person for a particular request, they said so candidly rather than filling the seat simply to keep the engagement going.
"I can call you and say, you know, I need this type of resource, or I need this type of assistance," Smith said, "and if you don't have it, you'll be honest with me and say we're not the best fit. That's unique and unusual in your world as well, so I really appreciate that."
That rare combination of honesty and consistently strong results is precisely what kept Ballad returning to JTS again and again.
"It feels like you are a part of our team working with us to help us accomplish our goals," Smith said, "which is rare to see from other vendors who don't really care about the outcome."
Ballad's engagement with JTS has since become less active, though Smith was quick to clarify that this isn't the end of the relationship. Like most health systems, Ballad's need for outside IT support naturally ebbs and flows with budget and workload.
"There will be a time when there's some more opportunity for us for further engagement," Smith said, "and my first point of looking will be with JTS, no matter what we've got going on."
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