Client Challenge: Kern Medical, a community teaching hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., was planning to implement a full suite of Cerner Millennium solutions, both clinical and financial. The hospital utilized a conglomerate of EMRs and was preparing to merge into one system. The internal IT department did not have the Cerner Millennium solution knowledge to lead the implementation or to support the system post go-live.

HPG Solution: Kern Medical turned to HPG to provide solution experts to be side-by-side advocates from the initial design of Kern’s clinical and revenue workflows. HPG’s team of experts provided over 2 years of design, build, testing, training, go-live and post-conversion support. In addition, HPG took over the integration testing process after the initial event did not go off as executed. The efforts went a long way toward guiding Kern Medical to a successful conversion to Cerner Millennium. Along with providing its expertise, HPG helped build the knowledge of the internal IT department to allow them to take over support of the Cerner Millennium system moving forward.

Project Timeline: 27 months

HPG Supporting Services: Application Services

Results: 

• Kern Medical utilized HPG resources to lead and educate their teams across many solutions including PathNet, PharmNet, Revenue Cycle, Women’s Health, Med’s Process, Oncology, Rehab, Ambulatory, Corrections, Orders, Powerchart, Clinical Workflows and Physician Documentation. These resources were credited with the success of conversion to Cerner Millennium.
• HPG took over the integration testing by bringing in a testing coordinator. This led to success in the IT2 and IT3 events after initial struggles.
• HPG’s revenue cycle team worked to maximize the coding for Kern Medical’s 3M functionality utilizing Computer Assisted Coding (CAC). The team solved the complexities around Discharged Not Finally Coded (DNFC) claims, with a focus on the build around Chemotherapy. 
• Kern Medical converted to Cerner Millennium with few issues. Upon conversion, HPG continued to provide support and training to enable a smooth transition for the Kern Medical team.