Community Connect

Epic Accredited Hartford HealthCare has partnered with Epic, one of the most highly regarded electronic tools in healthcare today, to introduce Community Connect.

This collaborative effort is designed to facilitate access to a uniform electronic health record among provider practices.

Hartford HealthCare’s Community Connect program is the only accredited Epic Community Connect program in Connecticut, and one of the 30 out of 160+ programs to achieve accreditation status this year, and the only program in Connecticut. Our program has met certain standards, such as having happy end users, following best practices, and demonstrating high adoption of Epic.

  • 96% of respondents said they are happy with their EHR and would recommend HHC Community Connect to a peer
  • 100% of respondents said they predict they will be happy with Epic two years from now

Come and join the 200+ health care providers who are already realizing the benefits of Community Connect
 

Connect Sites: 22

Connect Providers: 200+

Connect Users: 600+


“When you’re an Epic user, you have access to data about everyone who’s received care, wherever they’ve gotten it, wherever Epic exists.” - Dr. Rocco Orlando

“I feel I’m able to see more patients in less time, and have everything documented... If you don’t have Epic you’re missing out.”  - Dr. Ajit Kokkat

“For the Physician who is hesitant on going on an Electronic Health Record, if you haven’t experienced them, you don’t know what you’re missing.” - Dr. Christina Czyrko

“I feel I’m able to see more patients in less time, and have everything documented... If you don’t have Epic you’re missing out.”

“The interconnectivity of the Epic universe is outstanding, makes patient care much, much better.”

“From the beginning, the team working on the PB build listened to every request and made every effort to set up Epic to meet those needs. They continue to support our very customized set up.”

“Fast response, fast problem solvers, high quality people, very knowledgeable. I did not have any situation that the Epic team was unable to solve it in a timely manner.”


Key benefits include

  • Better Coordination of Patient Care
  • Avoid Duplicate Testing and Procedures
  • Measure Quality and Manage Costs

“You need to be focusing on delivering the care, and being informed on where are there gaps, where are there opportunities for improvement, not trying to spend a lot of time trying to gather the data… at the end of the day, this is where we need to go.”

- Dr. James Cardon

Epic is widely recognized as a leader in the healthcare IT industry where their products regularly receive high ratings in independent surveys measuring customer satisfaction and product functionality.

Community Connect is a reliable and affordable program allowing providers and practices associated with Hartford HealthCare access to the ambulatory suite of Epic products that are seamlessly linked to the inpatient and ancillary systems of Hartford HealthCare. This results in delivering the patient and provider with a unified patient record within a true community health record. In addition, the financial and billing information of your patients and practice is kept separate and secure from Hartford HealthCare.

Features

Community Connect provides access to numerous Epic applications, additional features, as well as excellent support and a host of services.

Applications include

  • EpicCare Ambulatory EHR
  • Cadence (Scheduling)
  • Prelude (Registration)
  • Resolute (Billing)
  • HealthyPlanet (Population health)
  • Haiku/Canto (Apps for mobile devices)
  • MyChartPlus (Patient Portal)
  • CareEverywhere (World-wide HIE)
  • Laboratory interfaces 
    • Quest, HHC hospital laboratories
  • Radiology interfaces 
    • Jefferson Radiology
    • Midstate Radiology Associates
    • HHC Hospital Imaging Centers
  • Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances
  • Scanning
  • Outbound Faxing

Support and Services include

  • Complete Technical Assessment and testing
  • Training for all staff members
  • Robust On-Site Go Live support
  • Specialty-specific templates and clinical content
  • Customization and personalization
  • Appointment conversion
  • Help desk support
  • Secure data back-up and disaster recovery for Epic applications
  • Local Account Manager for support
  • Upgrades

Additional Features

  • Dragon Medical 360
  • Address verification
  • Real-time eligibility
  • Appointment reminders
  • Credit card machine integration
  • Collections integration
  • Data conversion
  • Custom interfaces

Implementation

Each practice is provided with a 16-week implementation, complete with a Project Team, Project Lead, and Account Manager and Team Lead to oversee your custom implementation to meet provider practice needs. All the necessary software tools, systems integration, training and support are provided to efficiently deliver quality health care. You’ll also receive local training and on-site support for 10 days.

Support

“The Epic helpdesk team is the ultimate. You get an answer and you get a fix right away.”

- Dr. Ajit Kokkat

We understand your needs as a Health care provider to have immediate access to application support when you need it. And for that reason we have Helpdesk support is provided 24/7 for our Community Connect providers. We also have a team of analysts who support only Community Connect customers, and thus understand the needs of your practice. We know you’ll look forward to hearing a familiar voice when you call for support.

Community Connect Funding

Eligibility

Community Connect is offered to most providers who are members of the active staff in good standing at a Hartford HealthCare partner hospital, with some specialties excluded. To see if you are eligible, please contact us.

Pricing Plan

Costs for the program are based on community providers adhering to the implementation of the standard foundation build, approved interfaces, and use of approved third party vendors.

Cost Structure

  • A one-time fee for the cost of implementation
  • A monthly fee for support and maintenance
  • Fees for optional vendor add-ons such as Dragon, real time eligibility, address verification, appointment reminders, and Clearinghouse
  • Fair market value charges apply to specialty interfaces for billing services and transcription 

Donation Plan

Within the confines of the law, Community Connect donates as follows:

  • Members of Integrated Care Partners (ICP) receive a donation to the 80% level by meeting “good install” criteria, otherwise, they receive a donation to the 65% level 
  • Non-ICP members meeting “good install” receive a donation at the 60% level, otherwise, they receive a donation to the 45% level
  • To learn more about becoming an ICP member, visit their website.

With Community Connect your practice, staff and patients will realize

  • Better documentation
  • Clearer communication
  • Improved efficiency
  • Better patient care
  • Reduced administrative costs
  • Epic upgrades and systems enhancements developed by Hartford HealthCare

To learn more or to schedule an appointment, please contact

CommunityConnect@hhchealth.org

Hartford HealthCare