Accelerating EHR Modernization with Health Informatics, Data Analytics, and Agile Delivery

A Federal Civilian Agency‘s health division faced the critical challenge of transitioning from the legacy electronic health record systems under the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) initiative. This transition required standardizing clinical and business processes to improve care delivery and operational efficiency across 170+ medical centers nationwide. The transition presented significant hurdles, including managing variability in clinical workflows and addressing provider rework. The Agency required health informatics expertise to identify critical bottlenecks and provide solutions to assist in change management across 132+ medical centers to ensure a smooth transition to the new EHRM initiative.

To meet these challenges, Kentro delivered a range of Health Informatics (HI) services:

• EHR Transition Support (HITT) |Kentro supported the transition to the new EHR system by providing Health Informatics expertise and enabled local staff to focus on learning the new EHR system and other transition tasks.
• Education and Training |Our team applied instructional design methods to develop educational materials tailored to each Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) release. We provided “office hours” for field staff to ask questions about functionality and installation issues and to discuss issues found at their site. The team created questionnaires to evaluate the educational materials’ effectiveness and make improvements for future efforts.
• Data Analytics | Kentro data scientists, data analysts and technologists analyzed patient record data to determine issues contributing to referral cancellations and patient care delays. The team’s efforts extended to impact analysis, quantification of informatics interventions and clinical decision support tools deployed in the enterprise, linking intervention and tool deployments to leading indicators of success and long-term health outcomes.  The team further utilized advanced machine learning methods to generate actionable clusters of referral cancellations. The data analytics team’s work facilitated targeted referral workflow improvements, empowered leadership to make data-informed strategic decisions, and demonstrated tangible improvements in healthcare quality.
• Clinical Standardization & Optimization Tools |Kentro guided the maturation of the agile release train to strategically align health informatics improvements to the customer’s top priorities. Our clinical and technical experts created solutions to streamline clinical progress notes to improve primary care and specialist communication, alert clinicians in the care delivery process to fast-track Veteran specialty care and automate health information to reduce clinician’s business operations time and burden. These solutions ensure Veterans receive the right care in the right venue, leading to optimal clinical outcomes.

Kentro successfully supported EHRM Initial Operating Capability (IOC) and transitional operations, filling resource gaps for the Agency’s medical centers during the shift to Oracle Health.

• Kentro’s work reduced IOC implementation time by 75%, automated critical path reporting, and helped establish a standardized, scalable model for future EHR rollouts.
• Our team developed a CPRS transition and site engagement plan with 46 discrete tasks for agency medical center transitions to the new EHR, providing standardized and repeatable processes and tools.
• We assisted the agency’s Health Informatics Transition Team in completing 150+ site requests, including clinical reminders, CPRS installations, help desk and troubleshooting incidents, and updates to the Health Informatics Community of Practice Guide.
• Kentro automated the creation of the Integrated Readiness Critical Path (IRCP) Scorecard Dashboard which displays progress of any site’s implementation of health informatics readiness tasks. The IRCP Dashboard provided real-time updates to agency leadership on risks, issues, and potential mitigations associated with any health information system transition to the Oracle Health platform.
• Our Agile Release Train facilitated a Future State vision, enabling informed decision-making through actionable gap analyses and technical documentation. The program dashboards streamlined portfolio management and provided transparent insights for leadership. We devised strategic communication efforts to enable all relevant stakeholders to be updated on transition progress in a timely manner.

Kentro’s contributions to the agency’s transition created a repeatable model for future facility rollouts while optimizing outcomes for both clinical operations and patient care. By standardizing workflows and implementing tailored processes, Kentro enhanced organizational efficiency and enabled consistent delivery of healthcare services across the continuum of care. Our efforts harnessed data to inform decision-making, enabling agency leadership to act on real-time insights into transition progress, risks, and mitigations. Through robust analytics, Kentro empowered the agency to align resources effectively, minimize operational risks, and support clinical adoption. Ultimately, this work strengthened the agency’s ability to provide high-quality, patient-centered care while building a sustainable, agile, and data-driven health system.