How Premise Health Implementation Teams Opened 25 Employer Health Centers in 100 Days
The world’s leading defense contractor was searching for an experienced partner to help launch 25 health centers across the country to provide care for its 92,000 employees, while also navigating changes to their benefit plan design and transitioning away from internally managed health centers – all within 100 days. By partnering with Premise Health’s highly successful implementation team to develop a tailored approach, the client was able to transition its existing sites and open the new centers on time, on budget, and with zero provider turnover.
The Challenge
The defense contractor was seeking a direct healthcare provider to transition and manage its five existing sites, provide care at 20 health centers across the country, and improve the overall employee experience long-term. The ideal provider would need to deliver a multi-faceted solution within a strict, 100-day timeline. Additionally, the organization was seeking a partner that could:
- Provide both primary care and occupational health services for a population of 92,000 employees
- Navigate changes to its existing benefit plan design that would include multiple payers and a transition to a high deductible health plan
- Complete the implementation with zero provider turnover
The Solution
The employer partnered with Premise based on the direct healthcare provider’s 50 years of proven implementation experience, including more than 200 transitions from in-house or underperforming providers. Before assembling an implementation team or creating a strategic plan, Premise sat down with the client’s leaders for a two-day planning and intake session, where the group discussed what exactly they needed. This enabled Premise to alter its normal process for implementations based on their unique situation, needs, and previous experiences.
After listening to all requests and aligning on an approach, Premise put together an expert implementation team which included:
- 15 dedicated implementation managers comprised of seasoned operators, clinical practitioners, and educators
- A dedicated enterprise matrix team with representation and resources across multiple Premise departments to ensure all aspects of the migration and implementation are successful. This included:
- Operations, revenue cycle management, information technology, licensing, legal, clinical training, client reporting analysts, and certified Epic application analysts and trainers to support migration to the new electronic health record (EHR) platform
- An enterprise project management team to manage projects on a companywide scale using PMP-certified project managers
- Multiple team members certified in Six Sigma, a set of techniques and tools that reduce waste, variation, and cycle time by promoting the use of work standardization and flow
With the team in place, the expedited implementation kicked off with the goal of meeting the 100-day timeframe.
To meet the ambitious deadline, the implementation team made intentional choices when it came to staffing the new and existing centers. They onboarded 107 new team members and transitioned 78 providers who were working at existing health centers to maintain retention and minimize turnover. The two-week in-person training period for new providers was held in Nashville and specifically focused on EMR training, where team members also had access to IT support for any individual needs. We hosted a centralized general orientation and clinical training at one of the employer’s sites in Maryland, which helped build team unity and moral, while also reducing any uncertainty regarding the implementation. In between the EMR and generalized trainings, we also held webinars and online training to close any gaps and ensure the providers felt confident as we approached the go-live date.
Ensuring its own team members were informed throughout the project was also important. The Premise implementation team worked with the client’s leaders to create an extensive FAQ document that was posted for team members to reference throughout the process. A phone line was also stood up as another resource for team members to dial in and receive answers quickly and conveniently. After the go-live date, Premise team members provided robust support at all 25 sites for two weeks and maintained the phone line for an additional month.
While Premise was training clinical team members, a new EHR was also launched – an incredible feat in itself – across all 25 locations to create a seamless experience for both health center team members and members.
The Results
Despite the expedited implementation timeline, all 25 health centers opened on time, on budget, with zero provider turnover, and with a post-implementation NPS score of 96, an additional win for both organizations that showcased how smooth the transition was for the employer’s members. The project was a huge accomplishment for both the defense contractor and Premise, who’s implementation process was once again proven as extremely agile and successful. The project, which ran at Six Sigma level, remains both the largest and quickest implementation in the history of Premise Health.
A critical contributor to the success of the implementation was the partnership and collaboration between both organizations. Clear expectations were set in the beginning of the project which led to high levels of engagement, effective communication, and transparency throughout the entire process.
Since the implementation, the health centers have seen great success from a member experience and clinical quality perspective:
- 96 member NPS
- 24% health center utilization increase
- 18 centers under Premise Health AAAHC multi-site accreditation
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