Cerner CommunityWorks Best Practices for Pre- and Post-Implementation
Smaller community, fewer challenges? On the contrary. Healthcare organizations such as community, critical access and specialty hospitals often face trials that their larger counterparts don’t. Low patient volumes, limited staff, low reimbursement rates, lack of high-end profitable services, financial instability and patients willing to travel elsewhere for care mean these organizations must drive efficiency however possible. For those aiming to optimize their Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), transitioning to Oracle Health CommunityWorks can be a crucial step. This shift, however, presents both opportunities and trials. In this article, we provide practical guidance on pre- and post-implementation best practices, drawing from our experience as an RCM consulting leader. Our aim is to offer a clear roadmap for organizations navigating this transition, ensuring the full potential of Oracle Health CommunityWorks is realized.
Table of Contents
What is Oracle Health CommunityWorks?
CommunityWorks is a cloud-based, multi-tenant deployment of the Cerner Millennium Electronic Health Record (EHR) platform, tailored specifically to meet the needs of community, critical access and specialty hospitals. Cerner became part of the Oracle brand in 2022. Since the acquisition, the company has been known as Oracle Cerner, or Oracle Health. Cerner CommunityWorks is also known as Oracle Health CommunityWorks.
CommunityWorks includes a suite of integrated solutions aimed at helping improve patient care, streamlining clinical workflows and enhancing operational efficiencies. The CommunityWorks platform provides an integrated digital record of a patient’s health history, including both clinical and financial information. This data can then be shared across numerous facilities, throughout the patient’s care continuum. As Oracle Health describes it, this allows a shift from “reactive to proactive health management.”
Moving from the current status to future success requires a seamless migration between EHR platforms. JTS Health Partners can help every step of the way, from pre-implementation to post. We are highly skilled and seasoned consultants in Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), Health Information Technology (HIT), Health Information Management (HIM), Healthcare Analytics and more.
CommunityWorks continues to expand; it is now in more than 300 hospitals across 45 states. JTS Health Partners has been able to come alongside numerous healthcare organizations for the transition.
CommunityWorks PRE-Implementation Best Practices for a Successful EHR Migration
A successful EHR migration begins long before the actual implementation. Thorough assessment and understanding of goals, technology needs, system capabilities, pain points, responsibilities and readiness can help ensure the implementation goes as planned, all while staying on time and within budget. This section will explore pre-implementation tips, recommendations and best practices.
JTS Health Partners’ suite of Health Information Technology (HIT) services includes system evaluation and implementation, as well as consulting and cybersecurity assessments. Consulting offerings include HIT adoption, pre-planning, operational analysis and workflow management. JTS Health Partners has specific experience providing expert consultation within the CommunityWorks system. More than half of JTS clients operate on Oracle Health technologies.
Conduct a Comprehensive Needs Assessment
The pre-implementation plan for a platform such as CommunityWorks begins with a comprehensive needs assessment. This would include, for example, a complete exploration of current workflows, challenges and system requirements. The assessment would consider clinical and revenue cycle workflows, documentation flow, information from patient access through collections, identifying areas of duplication, bottlenecks and productivity inefficiencies. Current Oracle Health and integrated systems processes and capabilities would also be assessed to help determine strategies for optimization and automation.
Engage Stakeholders and Gather Requirements
Both advisory and operational support is needed for a successful implementation. As healthcare organizations often have competing initiatives and stakeholders, it’s essential to consider the best plan forward for all. JTS Health Partners meets with key stakeholders and/or executives remotely and onsite, helping ensure concerns are heard, understood and given due consideration. JTS helps establish effective and precise governance; this requires both need recognition and the envisioning of the future state by stakeholders.
At its core, deployment of the JTS Health Information Technology (HIT) Adoption Model is collaborative, inclusive and transparent to the organization. Stakeholders are engaged, a governance team is established, clear communication channels are put in place and leadership provides executive support, strategic positioning and consistent branding for the implementation.
Establish Clear Goals, Objectives and Responsibilities
Each stakeholder involved in the migration must understand their role, including specific responsibilities throughout the process. Which facets of the migration will they oversee? What are the protocols for communicating project process updates? Additionally, how can effective coordination among team members be ensured?
Create a Detailed Migration Plan
Implementation of Oracle Health CommunityWorks is a significant undertaking for any healthcare organization. The overall process includes assessment, planning, implementation and monitoring. Ideally, it includes an evaluation of the healthcare organization’s Revenue Cycle Management and clinical operations.
Migration of data is a multi-step and laborious process—particularly if there’s a conversion from paper to electronic records. Various steps of the process are explained in greater detail in the following sections. It’s important to note that Revenue Cycle Management expertise is needed, as well as knowledge of the CommunityWorks system. There also must be full understanding of the healthcare organization’s clinical components and process flows. Data cleaning and validation processes will help ensure accurate information, and training protocols will help staff learn the new system while attempting to work older accounts.
If a healthcare organization is working with JTS Health Partners, there will also be the opportunity to incorporate nCREAS™ Analytics as a Service to enhance efficiencies and optimize data.
Make Note of Changing Interfaces
Transitioning to CommunityWorks will include changes to the healthcare organization’s current interface landscape. As such, thorough assessment and documentation of existing applications, vendors, states and other various interconnects is helpful. For the smoothest possible process, create a visual map of the current landscape, as well as a corresponding diagram of the anticipated configuration after the migration. It’s important to note that as a multi-tenant offering, CommunityWorks has limitations in the ability to customize the system. Having a clear understanding of the system capabilities, clinical components and process flows pre-implementation will support a plan for a smooth transition.
Infrastructure Readiness
As CommunityWorks offers cloud-based access, the IT requirements are lower. At the same time, so is the level of control. It’s important to comprehensively evaluate the healthcare organization’s IT infrastructure, ensure compatibility with CommunityWorks EHR requirements and to address any needed hardware or network upgrades. JTS has found that some clients actually do need a larger system with more control. In this case, a conversion to Cerner CommunityWorks could be less desirable depending on the needs of the organization. It’s crucial to weigh functional losses against cost.
Data Validation and Cleanup
EHR data can be messy, confusing and/or inaccurate. In addition, there may be questions about what to do with old data as the implementation takes place: Leave it in the previous system? Or move it forward? For the greatest possible level of accuracy and integrity, existing data must be cleaned and validated before the migration process. In many cases, old data remains on the legacy EHR. Rather than having hospital staff accessing the old system while learning the new, engaging with an organization to work down old AR gives the necessary time to learn the new system and continue cash flow.
Data cleaning includes finding, fixing and/or removing corrupt, duplicate or inaccurate records. There’s also an opportunity to complete missing data and filter outliers. Data validation, on the other hand, is the process of confirming the information is high-quality, usable and correct. Data validation and cleanup are not only essential pre-implementation, but an ongoing, never-ending process to ensure data quality.
Training and Education Program Development
No matter how good the platform, it’s only beneficial if it’s used properly. A successful pre-implementation plan must include appropriate training for all end users, whether clinicians, administrative staff or IT personnel. Topics might include system navigation, data entry and workflow integration.
Change Management Strategies
Changing management helps address resistance and foster acceptance of new technology. As part of JTS’ HIT Adoption Model, the governance team of select stakeholders will brand the CommunityWorks implementation initiative to create a recognizable, more tangible identity across the enterprise. Leadership can provide ongoing support and positioning.
Security and Access Control
JTS Health Partners fully understands the need to maintain the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI). This is not only a regulatory mandate, but also an ethical obligation. As such, JTS takes a three-step approach to cybersecurity, including benchmarking the current state with a full risk assessment; developing a security program including establishing/ enhancing policies and procedures and planning for annual security measures; and ensuring sustainability.
An EHR presents a point of vulnerability for healthcare organizations. Implementation of CommunityWorks presents an ideal opportunity for a cybersecurity assessment of data, practices, devices and networks. Security protocols for safeguarding patient data should be reviewed and updated, and control policies must be defined to manage user permissions and restrict unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Vendor Collaboration
Oracle Health/Cerner offers proactive, personalized support on an ongoing basis in addition to its solutions and services. Healthcare organizations on a journey to implement CommunityWorks, then, would benefit from engaging with the company’s representatives and implementation specialists to better grasp the platform’s specific migration process and requirements. The vendor can also provide enterprise-level data analytics to help the healthcare organization maximize value.
CommunityWorks Post-Implementation Best Practices
Implementation of an EHR platform like CommunityWorks is not a one-and-done proposition. Ongoing evaluation, training, testing and monitoring of key performance indicators will help ensure stakeholders—and the healthcare organization as a whole—are set up for success. This section will explore post-implementation tips, recommendations and best practices.
User Training and Support
Oracle Health’s dedicated implementation team goes beyond simply helping with pre-conversion and go-live. Services related to CommunityWorks also include end-user training and resources, plus tailored learning content.
When implementing a training plan, it’s important to consider the level of technical skill and comfort of end users. It’s also important to consider whether end users need training on the entire CommunityWorks platform, or just on the areas they’ll specifically be utilizing.
Ongoing training sessions, troubleshooting and support are crucial to the successful adoption of the CommunityWorks platform; healthcare organizations must ensure a system is in place to address user inquiries and concerns promptly.
Workflow Optimization
Ideally, transitioning to CommunityWorks will increase efficiencies and streamline workflows. JTS Health Partners can help enhance workflow processes and outcomes through consulting, analytics and operational services. The work continues post-implementation. Ongoing evaluation and feedback from end users will help inform any necessary refinements and updates. This is especially the case as a healthcare organization’s needs and requirements shift over time.
Performance Monitoring
Once a platform such as CommunityWorks goes live, there’s a lot to monitor. JTS Health Partners shines in its subject matter and technical expertise. In addition, JTS’ analytics can help optimize both current and future performance. There will likely be technical optimizations in areas such as interoperability, workflow/operations and legacy data accessibility, and protocols will be established for addressing any performance issues down the line. JTS works collaboratively with the healthcare organization and Oracle Health to ensure the best possible outcome for the client.
Compliance and Reporting
Effective Health Information Management (HIM) is essential for healthcare organizations. This includes coding, compliance, reporting—and certainly encompasses an EHR system such as CommunityWorks. HIM analytics and operational reporting can be user-friendly, especially with the right partner in place. JTS Health Partners recognizes that HIM now encompasses privacy, security, legal, regulatory, analytics, financial and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) responsibilities; JTS offers a full spectrum of Health Information Management professional services to assist.
Documentation and Knowledge Sharing
Throughout the implementation process, be sure to maintain comprehensive documentation of system configurations, workflows and best practices. In addition, because end users may have different experiences with CommunityWorks based on their roles, it encourages the sharing of knowledge and insights for a more complete picture.
Post-Implementation Review
The National Coordinator for Health Information Technology specifically recommends evaluating an EHR implementation three to four weeks after go-live. If things don’t go smoothly, there is a risk that end users will revert to old methods and workflows, causing further confusion and inefficiency. HealthIT.gov recommends a full exploration of culture and adoption, identifying the need for additional training and/or revised workflows, plus exploring lessons learned, appropriate data capture and unplanned consequences. In addition, the review should consider network and infrastructure (reliability, whether bottlenecks and downtimes have been logged and reported, security of protected health information, etc.) as well as any lessons learned or issues to be resolved with the vendor. Insights discovered can be used to inform future projects and improve implementation strategies.
Continuous Improvement
Some challenges with the implementation of CommunityWorks will be immediately apparent and easily addressed. Others won’t surface until later. An ongoing feedback loop is essential, as is extending patience to end users. Change takes time.
With proper analytics and system monitoring, areas for performance improvement will become clear. Remember to lean on available resources, such as the implementation team, Oracle Health support and the subject matter experts at JTS Health Partners. Keep the end result in mind: a more efficient and strategic healthcare organization, able to provide a high level of care to patients.
JTS Health Partners Can Help with the Most Complex EHR/EMR Migrations
It might be tempting for a healthcare organization to take on the implementation of CommunityWorks alone. Surely, staff could manage the project around their other duties, right? In today’s healthcare environment—more than ever—it’s essential for staff to maintain focus on what they do best. It’s possible that a new electronic health record or electronic medical record system could be implemented without dedicated resources. But at what cost? Healthcare organizations can choose to partner with experts such as JTS Health Partners to deliver the desired results on budget, on time and with as few disruptions as possible. JTS brings insight and expertise to every step of the process, including Health Information Management, Healthcare Analytics, Revenue Cycle Management, and Health Information Technology. Why do it alone?
Ready to Streamline Your Healthcare Organization?
For those on the path toward Oracle Health/Cerner CommunityWorks implementation, JTS Health Partners is ready to join the journey. Let our experienced team streamline your migration process, optimize workflows, and maximize the benefits of your new system.
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