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Sarah Richardson: (Interview 1) Welcome to Solutions Showcase, where we explore the technologies and partnerships driving innovation in healthcare.

by two weeks. We're gonna hear how Broward Health and 314e partnered to streamline legacy data access, accelerate timelines, and what archiving can do. For a health system preparing for the future. And before we begin, I'd like to note that our guest, Deshan, is sharing his professional insights and opinions today based solely on his experience and his expertise.

His participation in any testimonials offered are not in exchange for any promise or remuneration In compliance with Florida's ethic laws, we appreciate Deshan's commitment to both transparency and ethical standards as he shares his valuable perspective with our audience today. So gentlemen, let's jump right in.

Thanks for being here.

Deshan Kennedy: Thank you for having us.

Sarah Richardson: So tell me how your initial conversation at HIMSS sparked the idea that archiving could become more than just a checkbox in the Epic migration. So.

Deshan Kennedy: All right, perfect. I'll go ahead and take this one. As far as archiving Broward Health, we were transferring over from a Cerna hospital to an Epic hospital.

What I did differently was I took an approach of standing in the background of when vendors were engaging with people, and I wanted to really see how they were handling themselves without them knowing I was with Browell Health and taking this approach. As I looked at the different venues, I came across 314 and I really like how they were interacting with other customers in order to present their product.

And so I, yeah. Great kind of first interaction. And so I think it was good discussion from there. I do remember having a good sit down at the couch after, after we had that first interaction though.

Sarah Richardson: when we were prepping for this you mentioned Deshan an aha moment during your go live planning.

What shifted your thinking around archiving at that point?

Deshan Kennedy: So when we were initially doing our contracts and RFP, our original statement was to get a copy of our databases from Cerna and NextGen in order to import directly into the archival system. But shortly after we ratified the contract, we realized that time wasn't on our side.

So we up with an approach to go directly into our data centers and

extract the information directly from there into the actually system itself. So we eliminated the requirement of getting a copy of the actually databases from the actuall vendor

Where we're waiting for backup databases and then the catch up loads and things like that. So that really drove how we responded to the RFP and were able to accept the timelines that they had set forth in the RFP response.

Sarah Richardson: And often what you'll find is that a large scale project like this is gonna underestimate the true scope.

Deshan Kennedy: Right from the beginning, our teams, we started off with a great line of communication from our first call with their overall leadership team.

Everyone jumped in the call and we removed all barriers. We exchanged cell information and said, Hey, you have access to our complete project team they provided the actually same information from their side. And we realized that we didn't really have too much time to mess around. As we get to go start a project, there's a lot of introductory calls and just wasted movement.

But right from the first call we just jumped in, from introductions to our provisioning meetings. I pulled my full team and 314e brought their team on, and we make sure that everyone had the access that they needed to do the job right from the first day moving forward.

And I know that just in working with Deshan and the team he was just, he adamant that if you need anything. Call me, text me, we'll remove those roadblocks. And so I think that was really one of the big things that allowed us to move quickly. And with, again, these big projects you have to be able to stay on it, on point and on agenda to meet these tight timelines.

And so working with Deshan and his team and having that open communication really allowed us to work quickly.

Sarah Richardson: I love hearing that because it can take a long time just to get through the contracting, security, legal risks, reviews, and I'm just curious as a sidebar, Deshan, how much of an expectation is that from your team, or was this more about the pressure needed to make sure you had things in place in time for go live that allowed that level of expediency to occur?

Part of the actually communication that, hey we need to get here this is a requirement. So it was very important that we not only met the deadline, but we actually was able to get there to test and make sure that we were good to go as part as the, our Epic Implementation Project

Sarah Richardson: and Trust is one of the recurring themes in this solution story that we've been covering.

I'd love to hear from you to Sean, how Casey, the 314e team shifted the tone from a sales conversation at HIMSS to really discovering and solutioning in a way that met and to a degree exceeded your expectations.

Deshan Kennedy: I think it started right from that first conversation that Casey mentioned.

Because it really. It does come down to on trust because you may have a vendor that says, yeah, we could do it. We could do it. And then once you sign the contract it's like, no, we really need it, 20 weeks instead of the timeframe that we actually allowed. So that was really something that I really felt that from that first conversation, we really was able to have a good conversation and build that initial layer of trust together.

Sarah Richardson: And Casey trust is a two-way street, and you're obviously committing to something with the partner that's like, oh my gosh, now you're setting up the whole company to meet the timeline to do this other work as well. What was that like on your end, and how did you have the conversations internally to make sure you could deliver what Deshan needed?

And that's always our mentality is we want customers for life. And the way to do that is by building trust and meeting their expectations. And so I think that was really important and expressed to the whole team from the top down, from our CEO.

Sarah Richardson: And then you launched two weeks early, which is an incredible feat in and of itself.

What were some of the specific decisions or moments that you credit for helping to accelerate that timeline?

It just wasn't one level of team it was. Overall from both sides. As Casey said, top down, that's how we operate here as well in the Browell health it department of it's just working together to keep things moving forward as things come up and they will, how do we resolve them as quickly as possible?

I give completely access to me, to the three on four and they gave it back to say, if something came up, we, I try to have that resolved. Within that single day, and I took personal responsibility with this project to say, you know what? I can't let my own organization down 'cause I know we have actually deadline.

And I really felt that 314e took that same responsibility from their side as a new partner with us. And they really understand that they didn't try to change our timeframe to make their needs and stuff like that. I really think that they really took our goals and responsibilities as if it was their own.

Deshan Kennedy: It's rare, in the, I come from a project management world where, this is the goal, but you know, it is rare that projects come in on time or anything like that. So when we got signed off to say, Hey, we're two weeks early, I think that really took off a lot of pressure.

From both sides, 'cause Casey and his team has to de deliver a product. I gotta deliver a service. So when we were able to get signed off to say, okay, it's there, it is working as expected. I think that, that, that really would give us opportunity to look back to where we started at from the first March conversation and see how far we came in such a short period of time.

Casey Post: Yeah, I would agree. And I. There was a few key decisions and a few things that happened that allowed us to meet that timeline. I think it ended up being five months that we archived a little over a hundred terabytes of data between

We are gonna meet this deadline, and if you tell me otherwise, tell me. And and that decision to go direct to the database really was one that was key to allowing us to meet that timeline. And echoing what I said earlier is Deshan's ownership and, the team's ownership of getting this done.

From the Broward side, really, opening the communication channels and, removing roadblocks really allowed us to work quickly and efficiently as a team.

Sarah Richardson: And many would worry that a live data feed would create latency or other unforeseen issues in that decision. So what gave you the confidence to go that route, and how did the teams, both of your teams manage risk while avoiding a full database copy, which is typically the norm.

And Oracle was good from their side, even though, we're leaving their system to go over to Epic they still assisted as needed. I had a full team that was monitoring, if we went down as far as Cerner because we are a 24 7 hospital system. So we had to have our team on full alert all around and.

We didn't have any outage, anything, slow us down. So when things did start, first thing we looked at, it wasn't something from the archive and it was nothing from the archival side. So we didn't receive any slowdown any major items from, going with this path or directly to the center until pull that extra information.

Casey Post: Yeah and it helped that we have done it before, so we knew that it wouldn't bring the system down. But to Deshan's point, we were very strategic in terms of when we would pull data really looking at off hours and things like that, and really just make sure we monitor very closely if there were any bandwidth issues.

Is there anything from your side? And they say, Nope, everything looks good. It's still having that trust and communication with your partner to go through this actually process. And if things come up or things not looking right, they're able to pick up the phone and call me or my team members to say, Hey, we're not seeing this information right.

Or, this looks a little weird. Where can you contact Oracle to be to help us out? So that was also a part that I definitely wanna, mention here as well.

Sarah Richardson: Oh, I'm glad you did, because I'm curious, Casey, if that's more of a norm, 'cause you've done it before, you know it can work. How much of it comes down to the team that you're performing it on behalf of versus the actual capability existing from an industry perspective?

Being in sync in terms of what we're trying to accomplish is really what's necessary here. Our secret sauce, if you will, but it does require engagement from our customers to make sure that we're able to meet their timelines.

Sarah Richardson: Well, you both mentioned that strong leadership, both sides, PMO Tech executive alignment has been a win.

How did that shared accountability show up in the day-to-day work?

Deshan Kennedy: our Chief Information Officer, Steve Travers, just checking in daily, how's it going? Me checking in with my team, how's it going? Having a strong project management team, trusting them to say, Hey, you are leading this project.

And I wanna prove to everyone else that you can finish a project on time and early.

Casey Post: A hundred percent. And I think too, from, having our CEO involved, he's not involved with every project, but he did start the company doing data migration services over 20 years ago. And so he knows this really well and

knowing the commitments that we made and the exposure that, this kind of a project would have. We made sure that everybody from, all of our developers, all of our team, all of our data mappers, everybody knew the importance of meeting these timelines. And so having our executive involved as well as Deshan said, Steve Travers from the CIO involved.

It really. Allowed us to work together and accomplish this.

Sarah Richardson: Tell me a bit about the kickoff and goal setting component of the engagement. I'm curious what y'all prioritized in those moments and how that clarity really helped shape what you need day one and the expectations going forward.

So all that information laid out completely. We could prioritize, was able to allow us to move forward in a strategic manner. That way, we're able to account to make sure that we have the most important patients, or who's likely to be a patient. It hasn't been seen by broward in a certain amount of time.

Having that information upfront was very helpful, so our interface team was able to identify that. this is our number one priority patients. This is number two. And this is everyone else who doesn't fit in category one or two. And working with Casey's team to be able to say, okay, this is what we really need to make sure that we have in there.

'cause this population's covered directly in Epic.

Sarah Richardson: And Casey, one of the hallmarks, honestly, a 314e is everybody feels like they matter for you.

And so when you've got multiple projects going and you've got some of the newer, bigger pieces coming together, how are you also making sure that all of your clients feel like they are the most important one for you?

Casey Post: We are a small and mighty team, Sarah, and, we work hard to make sure that they see that we're only working for them.

And so it's really in our DNA here, is that we put our customers first and Yep. We've got a lot of priorities going at the same time. But we have to meet our customer's expectations.

Sarah Richardson: Looking forward, I'm curious how you're not only gonna keep the momentum from what you've achieved together, what is the ongoing partnership and post-implementation iteration to a degree look like?

Casey Post: With every project we get better and I think that we always learn something none of these go none perfectly smooth every single time and we always have takeaways that we learn from those. I think some of the things that we have achieved in this project and a few others that we've delivered recently is that we can even move quicker than we thought.

And so we did a previous project in 12 months and then, Broward here in five or six months, having sort of that, knowledge of what it takes to work quickly and efficiently is just allowing us to go to market with a new message for our customers out there is really is, archive data at the same time as your go live.

Sarah Richardson: What kind of, sort of momentum did it set for your team and the confidence level upon which they were able to deliver as well?

So, as we map out what does life look like in the upcoming years for Epic, for Broward, as we plan our roadmap, they're a trusted partner that I could call Casey and say, I have this challenge. Can 314 be a potential solution to this? And this is something that is a great conversation to have with your trusted partners because sometimes, as you go through the process, things that you see as challenges may not be your high priorities, but when you are able to have that ongoing conversation with your partners, you're able to really create a roadmap of.

What is the priority? So as we went live with Epic we know that there's a lot of stuff that we have to do to close down next gen, Cerna as we finish archiving that with the additional services that we may have. So there's gonna be additional services that we're going to need.

Agreed. And

Sarah Richardson: with knowing Casey, I think it's been at least a decade now that he and I have been connected. If he doesn't have that solution in his portfolio, he's gonna help you find it with another trusted partner, and I feel like that's probably why 314, he continues to be so successful. Besides the ability to deliver is the ability to help you be successful wherever you are on your journey.

For sure.

Deshan Kennedy: And that's what having a great partner is it's really about being honest. Whether you could deliver or say, that's not our stronghold It's really that upfront honesty and that goes a long way from my side as working with the organization at the size of Broward Health, I really need partners who are gonna tell me what the honest truth is.

Casey Post: Yeah, completely agree. personally having been in the business for a long time, I'm seeing this transformation that Broward Health is making too.

And how they operate from Deshan to Steve Travers to the CEO Shane.

Sarah Richardson: I love that you both shared this journey today. Before we close out, any last words of wisdom for the audience that's listening today?

Deshan Kennedy: I'll piggyback on what Casey has said.

Now that you did it, you proved that you could do it now you could go faster. So when Browell went on this journey of Implementating Epic in 18 months, the community was like, no way. No way. And we did it in 18 months, when we started looking at it, archiving, we did it in in, in four months.

It was so much more that you could go faster, so who knows what the future may hold

And I think that's one of our biggest takeaways here too.

Sarah Richardson: Well, it's so great spending time with both of you. Thank you for taking the opportunity to share what Broward Health and 314e did from the Ville Archive perspective and moving to really a shortened timeline in the migration to Epic and shortened timeline and still getting there a couple weeks early.

So thank you for sharing the journey. For sure. It's pretty awesome to hear what a true collaborative partnership looks like.

Deshan Kennedy: Thank you. Thank you for helping us.

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