Bobby Bacci started his career with Epic in 2006, and over the next four years rose quickly through the ranks and assisted with Epic rollouts at large hospitals and health systems throughout the country.
In 2010, he left Epic to return to Chicago where he and his wife wanted to start a family. He found a consulting position with a software company outside of the healthcare industry, but soon found his new position unfulfilling.
"I missed being in healthcare. Working in healthcare can really strike a chord with you, as everyone has someone in their family who has needed care," says Mr. Bacci. "With the incredible disparity between costs and outcomes here in the U.S., I always felt the work I had done in healthcare, especially around electronic health records, was both meaningful and challenging."
Fueled by a desire to return to healthcare and to bring his expertise to improving care delivery throughout the U.S., Mr. Bacci launched Prominence Advisors. The advisory firm specializes in assisting organizations that have purchased Epic, with a particular focus on analytics, strategy and execution.
"I wanted to start Prominence because I wasn't finding another organization that had the values I think are critical to a strong organization," he says. "I must have interviewed at 10 or 11 firms, and there was always something missing."
Mr. Bacci incorporated the organizational traits he found absent at other consulting firms into Prominence. Prominence knows that their success relies on the quality of their team, so they have implemented a series of checks and balances in their vetting process to help ensure their clients always know they are getting a knowledgeable and experienced Advisor, he says.. Prominence also strives to give the best possible advice to clients, regardless of the business impact. "If we don't think our clients need more resources or time from us, we'll tell them that," says Mr. Bacci.
Additionally, the firm takes a more holistic view in their work with EHRs. Prominence goes beyond the initial rollout to ensure a provider has the analytic capabilities and workflow strategies to get the most out of their IT systems, now and in the future. "We like to think forward two or four years to where the industry and the organization is headed, and advise accordingly," says Mr. Bacci. "It's about giving them the solutions and advice to get things done and to accommodate the organization’s future goals."
Past experience working at Epic and challenging, cutting edge projects with Prominence have made his firm a valuable resource to their clients. The team is able to draw on their experiences to offer tried-and-true advice to clients and establish trusting relationships.
For example, he tells his clients not to be shy about suggesting changes to their vendor. "A lot of times I've worked with organizations that were tentative in creating a strong partnership with their Vendor," he says. He acknowledges a balance needs to be struck, but advises voicing both expectations and suggestions for improvement clearly to the vendor, and to continue to communicate to ensure both are addressed. "It's often true that the squeaky wheel gets the grease," says Mr. Bacci. "If you're not happy with the way things are going, reach out, speak up, and find mutual ground that can help move the product forward."
Mr. Bacci often recommends organizations identifying similar opportunities for improvement with the same vendor to band together. "There is power in numbers," he says. "If others want the same enhancement, together you can make a much stronger case for change."
At the start of implementations, Mr. Bacci stresses the importance of thorough strategic planning to help massive projects run smoothly. For organizations in the middle or at the end of an implementation, he recommends ensuring enough resources are allocated to optimization. Especially with Epic, new features become available so quickly that it's easy to fall behind or not dedicate enough time and resources to integrate each into organization's workflow, he says.
Looking ahead is also a main component of Mr. Bacci's advice to hospitals and health systems. Data analytics will only continue to increase in importance as the industry transitions to value-based care and data-mining capabilities become more universal, but Mr. Bacci has seen many organizations address this functionality last during implementations. "If you put this off, you'll be overwhelmed very soon after go-live with requests for data," he says. "It really needs more emphasis from leaders early on in the process."
Additionally, considering the high level of merger and acquisition activity currently in the industry, hospital and health system leaders should think about how their IT systems and data analytics capabilities can adapt to organizational change. "It's important to have the technology and processes in place to quickly gain insight from data linked to an organization’s evolving structure," he says. "I've had a lot of conversations with CIOs about this — to be successful they need to make sure their EMR is capable of growing along with them, without requiring substantial development to keep up with changing intelligence requests and organizational goals."
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