Community Connect

Industry-leading expertise on both sides of the extension equation

Bringing your EHR to independent physicians and healthcare partners requires planning and expertise beyond that of a typical implementation. We guide you through each step of the process to plan, build, deploy, support, and optimize your Connect program while avoiding the obstacles that bring expensive delays and missteps.

Success Stories

Lauren discusses how Nordic can help you plan and execute a successful extension to independent partners.

Build the foundation

We know the recipe for building a powerful Connect offering. From developing sensible business models and pricing to streamlining your rollout strategy, we make sure the stage is set for a successful system extension.

Create a community

Extending your EHR is more than just delivering a system — it's about building relationships, too. Our approach puts people first, with the guidance, tools, and expertise to strengthen your program through meaningful engagement.

Deploy and support

We stay busy through deployment and beyond, analyzing, building, testing, and training while providing options for scalable maintenance and ongoing support as your program grows.

Optimize and improve

We never stop looking for ways to give you more from your program. We offer continuous improvement options and respond to the needs of your partners as they settle into the system.

A proven 4-step methodology

Our four-step extension methodology offers a flexible process option that can be followed in full or adapted to fit your current approach. More than just another project plan, we mold our consultant training programs and documentation to map directly onto each step, including the crucial phases leading up to delivery and beyond. While many firms supporting extension projects focus solely on deployment, we arm our clients with a proven strategy to ensure a successful rollout.

STRATEGY

Before diving into any new extension project, we carefully examine your business model, pricing model, and legal contract. These pieces are critical to the success of an extension and help us set the stage for your Connect program in the short and long term.

PLANNING

Whether you're going live with six or 600 end users, it's important to prepare not only your project plan and checklists, but also your policies, procedures, marketing documentation, and plan for engaging new partners. With a strategy in place, we help you identify opportunities for extension as well as plan and conduct a proof-of-concept build — updating your scope as needed.

DEPLOYMENT

Once you're confident in your extension plan, we can support the successful deployment of your new system. Our consultants draw on our proprietary toolkit and experience in multiple applications and Epic projects to build, test, train, and bring your partners live successfully.

SUPPORT AND OPTIMIZE

Following system deployment, we can provide ongoing managed services support to give affiliates the high level of support and responsiveness they expect at a predictable cost. When you simply don't have the bandwidth to take on new affiliates while meeting your current users' service-level agreements, we offer partial or full support to fill any existing gaps.

The Nordic difference

40 Epic extension clients

130+ Tools & Templates to Save You Time & Money

300 Consultants with Extension Experience

EXPERIENCE IN LEADERSHIP

Our Connect experience stretches back to its beginnings. Abby Polich, an original member of the Epic team that created Epic's 40-Hour Install methodology, later called Connect, leads our extension projects and funnels her intimate knowledge through our entire Affiliate Solutions team. Each extension project is closely managed by our hand-picked engagement advisors, who personally review each aspect of the program, contribute to deliverables, and provide documentation from our toolkit. Our clients benefit from best practices informed by years of experience growing Epic around the country. Our team’s unique backgrounds span inpatient, ambulatory, access, and revenue cycle applications, as well as implementation, technical writing, and technical services.

CONTINUOUS EDUCATION

Our leaders regularly attend Strategic Affiliate Management Training to uncover new solutions to common extension challenges and pass their expertise on to frontline consultants. Our internal education programs provide a forum for in-person discussion with peers and hands-on experience with the Affiliate Solutions Toolkit. For those who want in on what we're learning, we provide experiences and best practice recommendations to all of our partners interested in learning more.

THE NORDIC TOOLKIT

Our adaptable Nordic Toolkit contains over 130 documentation tools and templates that serve as the starting point for developing and implementing Connect programs no matter what shape they take.

360° INSIGHT

We help organizations on both sides of an Epic extension. Whether you're expanding your system to new providers or receiving one from another health system, we know how to address challenges from both perspectives.

Loma Linda University & Nordic

Learn how we helped Loma Linda University Health bring a large-scale Community Connect project to life on time and under budget.

Our Connect implementation stayed on time and on budget thanks to our partnership with Nordic. They are the most experienced firm we have found regarding Connect and extension projects. I recommend Nordic to any healthcare system that needs support meeting their Connect goals.

DOUG TURNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF IS RAPID-CYCLE DEPLOYMENT, LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

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