Advisory Services
Providing insight into your
data management, workflow,
and efficiency challenges
Leverage Our Knowledge and Insight
By choosing to work with Keena, your practice will align with industry leading healthcare consultants to evaluate your demanding technology and workflow needs while also providing insight and consideration of industry trends and regulatory requirements. As your needs change, an appropriate consultant will be assigned to the project at hand ensuring that you always receive the best resource to manage your situation. Our clients all come to embrace each assigned consultant as essential members of their team knowing that they are a trusted expert supported by a diverse team of skilled Keena advisors and workflow enabling tools. With Keena you’re not just hiring a temporary resource but healthcare IT experts and technology facilitators who are always just an email, phone call or text message away.
Management Services
Business & Operations Strategy
Today’s healthcare environment presents more challenges than ever before. Rapidly changing and dynamic pandemic management requirements and the threat of ransomware attacks are daily realities. Now more than ever, healthcare administration and leadership can use the help of industry experts to supplement their operational and technology strategies. Look to Keena to provide experienced, leading healthcare consultants- many who have previously worked for organizations like yours and are managing clients facing similar challenges.
Staff Planning
In the best of times, hiring and maintaining a loyal staff of skilled HIT labor can be a problematic. Dealing with a tight labor market requires fast-moving creative strategies to stay competitive and keep staffing levels in a place that will allow you to complete important IT projects. Our team will evaluate your project load, staffing requirements and the labor market to determine the best plan to address your needs. We’ll also work with you to devise creative recruiting and retention strategies. And finally, if you need temporary skilled consultants, we can provide an appropriate consultant for the situation.
Budget Planning and ROI Analysis
Faced with a growing list of priorities, healthcare organizations are faced with tough decisions when it comes time to budget for competing IT projects. Having consultants with direct provider organization experience means we understand your complex budgeting process. Having consultants who have also worked with scores of organizations with similar challenges means we have the know-how to handle any difficult budgeting process. Keena consultants also have the analytical tools and ROI expertise to help you objectively make the right budgeting decisions for your particular situation.
CIO Advisory
The challenge of managing a complex healthcare IT department can often lead to unforeseen biases that otherwise might be overlooked by an independent third party. What will your organization and technology platform look like in 1-year, 2-years, 5-years and beyond? How will you get there? What are the trends that will drive your strategic planning decisions? Keena’s exclusive executive consultant advisory team will work closely with your IT leadership team to improve the value of your current IT investments and work with you to align your business and technology strategies. We’ll work with your organization to conduct needs and technology assessments, staff and workflow assessments, and budgeting and ROI analyses to determine the most effective path forward to help your organization achieve is near-term and future goals.
Management Services
Clinical Data
Keena consulting clients have a “direct-line” to an assigned clinical data expert to help strategic IT projects such as: daily EHR/PM troubleshooting, upgrade support, large project support, specialty project lead, configuration advice, peer networking, workflow automation and general industry trends.
Staff Training
No matter the software application or required method of delivery, whether its end-user or IT analyst training, we have the skilled resources to help with these projects. Our experts can assist in training needs for Large Project Rollouts, EHR/PM End-user Training, and IT Analyst Admin Training. We also specialize in advanced training areas including SQL, Interface Builds, or Software-Specific training tasks such as Allscripts TouchWorks Advance Structure Note, etc.
Optimization Reviews
Most workflow challenges for end-user staff and management are the result of complex EHR/PM and ancillary systems being rapidly deployed. These complex deployments can often lead to misconfigured software and cumbersome workflows that negatively impact productivity. Our team evaluates and recommends system optimization reviews on a regular basis. Through these systemic workflow analyses our team will provide a detailed report of adjustments that lead to an organization working smarter, not harder.
Expert Project Management
Regulatory and organizational changes often result in new and unexpected projects. Timely implementation of these projects often requires the need for an expert resource to help backfill staff daily tasks or to lead the project. Our project management team will evaluate your needs and bring in experienced project managers or task-oriented consultants to make sure your plans stay on course with a successful conclusion. Examples include: Major System Upgrades, Software Conversions, and New Locations or Specialty Rollouts.
Custom Reporting Needs
Data is only as powerful as the analytic algorithms that drive operational reporting. Although most systems come with a standard set of reports that cover your basic data management needs, it is nearly impossible to achieve peak organizational efficiency without custom reporting. Our team of database experts will take your data reporting requests and turn them into accurate and effective operational tools. A sample of our capabilities include: staff productivity reports, quality and regulatory performance analysis, billing tracking and financial performance, or occasional one-off reports to support a clinical trial or security/legal audit.
Workflow Automation/Data Cleanup
Repetitive manual workflows often result in inefficiency, job dissatisfaction and wasted budget dollars. Any workflow that is repetitive and data-driven with numerous manual steps or excessive “clicks” should be evaluated for automation. If rules and login models can be written down, then an effective electronic process can be created to manage the task more efficiently. Examples include: CPTII Code Billing, Patient Problem/Diagnosis clean-up, Patient Portal Flagging and more.
Management Services
Claims Data
Keena brings claims data experts together with state-of-the-art normalization and analytical tools to clean, organize, store, and enable financial reporting and enhance management capabilities. We can help detect trends both for individual payers as well as across them allowing your organization to predict where the business is going before it gets there. Keena claims advisory consulting clients have a direct line to an assigned claims data expert.
ACO Advisory Services
Building excellent ACO services requires a deep understanding of claims processing and the algorithms that drive those processes. The claims consulting team at Keena brings the knowledge, analytical skills and experience your organization requires to manage any claims data challenge. If you are just starting out, we can partner with you to design your network and set up your ACO. If you’re already up and running, we’ll take a macro view of your data architecture and help find efficiencies and enhancements that impact your bottom line. No matter the stage of deployment, we have the people and analytical tools to help.
Master Data Management (MDM) Solution Advisory
To operate successfully, Healthcare Information Exchanges, Accountable Care Organizations and healthcare organizations involved in merger/acquisition processes are often faced with the enormous challenge of accurately and effectively consolidating information on patient identities and healthcare encounters from several disparate systems. A Master Data Management plan for these complex and time-sensitive projects is mission critical. Keena MDM consultants have both the expertise to build a plan for your organization and a proven MDM solution to normalize, store and manage the data, if needed.
Claims Automation/Data Cleanup
Keena’s claims processing service stems from a proprietary automation system using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to handle the mundane and complex manual tasks of processing claims. Through our years of experience across many payors we have identified and mastered all the unique characteristics and requirements necessary for successful claims submissions. Let our team of claims data experts evaluate your repetitive and data-driven processes for productivity improving automation. Examples include: 100% audit, claims attribution and web process automation.
What Our Customers Are Saying About Us
“
Keena has the depth and knowledge to handle diverse data sources, file types, and integration types. This allows them to develop efficient tools to drive new processes and payer mandates.”
Director of Information Services, Advocate Health Partners
Our Leadership Team
JAMIE STECK
Director of Business Development
Prior to joining Keena (formerly EHR Integration Services) in November of 2012, Jamie Steck was the IT Director for Central Utah Clinic in Provo, Utah for 12 years, and their clinic accountant for 2 years. While at the clinic, Jamie was instrumental in moving the organization to its EHR system in 2001. During his time, the clinic grew from 30 providers to nearly 300 with over 95 locations throughout the state and extending into Arizona and Nevada. The clinic has been a nationally recognized leader in quality initiatives, helping the state of Utah develop its HIE program. Jamie holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the Utah State University, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. Since joining Keena Healthcare Technologies (EHR-Integration Services), Jamie has led or consulted on a dozen similar projects for many clients. Jamie has also been instrumental for several clients to offer direct advisory services to Sr. Leadership on staffing, quality programs, software recommendations, etc. Jamie has even presented the findings to several boards directly in their respective meetings.
CHRISTINE PIPER
Senior Manager Client Success
For 10-years prior to joining Keena, Christine Piper was the EMR Project Manager and Lead Analyst for Affiliated Community Medical Centers (now known as Carris Health) -headquartered in Willmar, MN. Since joining Keena, she was called back to that clinic to serve as an interim CIO for 6-months. While there, Christine was instrumental in managing the following initiatives: fully implementing TWEHR; successfully completing several years of quality payment program initiatives; archiving legacy systems; converting an EPIC system to TWEHR; and integrating multiple ancillary systems. In many circumstances she was required to think outside-the-box to determine the ideal solution for the situation.
Since joining Keena she has managed multiple clients upgrades of TWEHR/PM and conversion projects such as HealthEast joining Fairview. She wrote the initial TWEHR extractions for Nextgen’s Population Analytics and defined the curriculum of Keena’s v11Note Admin training course. Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the Minnesota State University Moorhead.
JIM KREMA
Senior Manager Data Analytics and Management
Prior to joining Keena (formerly Byte Sized Solutions) in July of 2018, Jim Krema was President and Quantitative Portfolio Manager for Krema Asset Management, LLC. Jim managed and marketed a quantitative based equity fund. Prior to this, Jim was a Quantitative Portfolio Manager at Driehaus Capital Management in Chicago. As portfolio manager at Driehaus, Jim and his team managed five quantitatively based equity portfolios. Preceding his role as portfolio manager at Driehaus, Jim was the Director of Information Technology (IT). Jim’s role within IT evolved with the firm as he was the first IT hire at Driehaus and grew the department to a staff of 16. During this same time period, the firm overall grew to 100+ employees and over $3 billion under management.
Jim holds a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Benedictine University and a master’s degree in Computer Science from DePaul University. Early in his career, Jim taught high school mathematics and computer science at the college level. As manager of the Data Analytics and Management team, Jim and his team work closely with directors and managers at healthcare providers, such as Advocate Aurora Healthcare, in automating various processes and tasks in the areas of claim processing, member eligibility and patient attribution. An underlying theme in the development of many of these systems, is a focus on financial risk mitigation.
What Our Customers Are Saying About Us
“
After bringing in skilled and experienced Keena IT consultants to support our department, we not only were able to effectively maintain essential IT systems but also implement new quality and efficiency enabling applications and programs. The result was an increase in staff satisfaction and overall increase in our clinical operations and improvement in care delivery.”
Chief Medical Officer, Hutchinson Clinic
Advisory Services Insights
Case Studies
ADVISORY SERVICES
Staff Augmentation & Advisory Services
Hutchinson Clinic turned to Keena's consultants to supplement their staff shortfall and keep important IT projects moving forward.
Benefits
- Optimization of TWEHR/PM systems.
- Consistent, up-to-date training on all core IT systems.
- Creation of custom operational/quality reports.
CLINICAL AUTOMATION
A Complex CPTII Coding Automation Solution
Keena created a custom data solution for The Jackson Clinic to link CPTII codes to visit charges automatically.
Benefits
- Improved quality reporting and reimbursement levels.
- Significant reduction in CPTII coding submission errors.
- Consistent incremental improvements in patient care.
DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYTICS
Shared Savings Success: A Model For Teamwork
Advocate Physician Partners worked with Keena to design a system to successfully evaluate and manage the ACO's shared savings program results through a financial claims and eligibility database.
Benefits
- Advocate has consistently been ranked in the top 3 of ACO’s. Reported savings in 2021 of $79.6 million.
- Enabled effective tracking of both financial trends and member-provider attribution.
- Data automation saved APP and its staff hundreds of labor hours.
Brochures
Simplify, Optimize, Analyze & Resolve
Learn how to best leverage Keena as your health information technology partner.
Advisory Services
Insight into your data management, workflow and efficiency challenges.
