Feb 26, 2014
Cumberland Consulting Group helps bring hospitals into the digital age (The Tennessean)
Jim Lewis wants to be a voice of reason for hospitals getting into the digital age. He’s the CEO and one of the co-founders Cumberland Consulting Group, a health care consulting firm that specializes in technology. Technology, as it refers to hospitals, usually means implementing electronic health records, or EHRs in industry lingo. While almost everyone agrees that EHRs have tremendous benefits, getting them up and running can be messy.
Lewis and his partners, fellow consultants at big global firms, saw the opportunity for their services in Nashville 10 years ago. Since 2004, the company has grown tremendously, increasing revenue from $2.2 million to nearly $40 million annually over the past decade.
Lewis spoke with Tennessean reporter Shelley DuBois and explained why he would pit Cumberland’s project results against those of much larger consulting firms.
Implementing EHR systems can get pretty hairy. How do you make it easier for people?
Well, I will tell you a couple of things that are really important. One is that we like to be in on the front end with planning.
One of our major agenda items is to actually make sure folks have a pretty good idea of what it is going to cost. Often, when we price this whole package, it really opens up some people’s eyes about the magnitude of the project.
I have to say, I’ve worked at big companies, and one of my least favorite things to do is take time out of my day for tech training. How do you get workers at hospitals to show up?
That’s a big part of the challenge, it really is. I think we’re very mindful of the other things that are on people’s plates. Certainly, as it relates to clinicians, they have very difficult, time-consuming and important other work to do.
One of our methods is to sit down with the folks who are involved in that practice, top to bottom, early in that process, and say, “Here’s what you’re in for.”
We try to build our plan based on what they’re facing, with some recognition that there’s going to be an aspect of nobody likes doing what we’re doing, like you say.
What is the most difficult piece of EHR rollout to explain?
With EHRs, it’s interesting because there are lots of lots of potential benefits, but there’s a pretty steep learning curve. The productivity of treating patients goes way down and then it rebounds and then it goes up. The endpoint is higher than where they were at the beginning, but they’ve got to deal with the valley.
Read the full interview on The Tennessean’s website.
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