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Meet Janice: Janice is a Senior Epic™ consultant with certifications in ClinDoc and Stork™. She started her career as a nurse, which offers a unique perspective to every project and enables her to help the physicians and nurses she works with to provide better patient care.
“I love what I do,” says Janice. “I want to be busy, but I also want to make a difference in the world.”
Although Janice was in high demand, being contacted by multiple consulting companies interested in working with someone of her caliber, Janice ultimately chose to partner with Oxford in the Fall of 2012. She continues her partnership with Oxford today. Janice explained that the reason she chose Oxford was that she wanted to be very particular about which company to partner with to ensure it was the best fit for her. Oxford met all her criteria – from benefits to industry experience.
When Janice first began consulting, she confided in her recruiter, Brett, about some of her concerns. “I had been a homebody and all of a sudden I was consulting, and the idea of going to another state was intimidating but I was up for the challenge. Oxford seemed to have everything I needed. The recruiter had so much knowledge about what the work would be, how to arrange all of the travel, and he made it sound so easy.”
Janice’s career has connected her with various companies, and she has worked on a wide array of different initiatives ranging from IT support and training, to project management and system builds. She has worked with programs like Cerner™, Epic, Centricity™, and many others. Each project teaches her new skills, which she uses to build upon her expertise and to inform her future projects and initiatives.
About her most recent project: Janice was asked to update antiquated Epic tools for a hospital system. Janice and her team needed to rebuild the system and create functionality for auto-charging within Epic for four different hospitals. She was the analyst in charge of the build, but found her responsibilities extended far beyond her expectations – including project management. The client relied on her to maintain thorough records of the project, schedule and conduct regular meetings, build the program, and train the employees. In addition, Janice was responsible for monitoring the team’s ticket queue and given other smaller build fixes to resolve issues. At times, she was on-call to resolve issues that arose after hours.
“I just went out and found the information I needed. I had never been an official project manager, but there’s nothing I can’t do. I researched strategies on how to be the best project manager and frequently consulted Epic’s website to ensure I had everything I needed to provide the best possible outcome for the client.”
The greatest challenge of this project for Janice was overcoming the logistics. However, once she found her footing and got into a groove, she was able to see the project through to a successful go-live. “It was rewarding to finally finish the project. I planned the go-live and rollout one hospital at a time. I offered classes, taught the staff during their lunch hours, and gathered feedback. It was satisfying to see the work come to fruition.” Additionally, Janice set up the system in such a way that would save the client money in the long-run – the system was automated to choose whatever option meant the greatest reimbursement for the hospital.
To other consultants in her field, Janice offers the following advice: “Be free to give information; don’t hold back. Create a status report as you go and send it to your manager regularly. Maintain open lines of communication with everyone you work with, even if it’s not always work-related. Consistent communication builds trust, and trust is key in any working relationship. Utilize whatever resources are available to you to learn as much as possible.”
Janice approaches each project with a positive attitude and a focus on communication, which her colleagues, trainees, and clients welcome and appreciate. Her ability to develop a rapport with everyone makes her a joy to work with and adds great value to Oxford’s consultant network.