Hayes Employees Call Summit a "HIT"

On November 14, 2010 more than 95 Hayes employees descended upon Boston for the firm’s annual “Hayes Summit” at the Wylie Inn and Conference Center at Endicott College. The two day event, designed to build community and innovation, was ranked by employees as being the best in its twelve year history.

“It was great to interact with my co-workers and share experiences and expertise with others,” says Matthew Alger, an Epic billing subject matter expert, “It makes it easier to reach out for help or mentor when you know the person.”

The event was peppered with guest speakers, educational workshops and networking opportunities. For example, Dr. Mark Jacobs, Vice President for Primary Care at Caritas Christi Healthcare talked about health reform from a physician’s point of view.

“I enjoyed the varied subject matter and guest speakers who provided
different perspectives to real problems and real solutions,” said consultant Nira Mahesh, “I thought the mix of industry and corporate topics was excellent.”

Dana Farber Cancer Institute clients Celeste Daye, Director of Patient Accounting and Melissa Shore, VP, Revenue Performance Management spoke to Hayes employees about the day‐to‐day challenges of managing the revenue cycle in Dana Farber’s complex healthcare organization. “Everyone seems to enjoy hearing the clients’ perspectives. It helps us put our work into a more informed context, and our outcomes are better for it,” says Andy Treanor, Vice President of Client Services.

The educational sessions are part of Hayes internal training program entitled, “Hayes University.” Outside of the Summit, “Hayes U” sessions are
offered every Friday by webinar. At the Summit, Hayes’ subject matter experts led workshops on topics such as Meaningful Use, MDapproach (Hayes’ methodology for operational improvement), ICD‐10 and v5010, Hayes’ new Project Management Office (PMO), best practices in client documentation, helping clients go live and more. They also included sessions on stress management and company software training to help
employees improve work/life balance and administrative efficiency.

“I was inspired by all of the great collaboration and brainstorming that came out of all the sessions I attended,” said Mike Butler, part of the Hayes’ Legacy IT Help Desk team. Some attendees had been with Hayes more than 17 years, while others had just been hired. Expertise ran the gamut as well, including employees specializing in healthcare strategy, IT implementation, revenue cycle management, billing auditing and more.

“New hires were flabbergasted at how unpretentious our leaders are,”
remarked Laura Bloemer, a senior consultant and EpicCare Ambulatory subject matter expert. “I enjoyed the ability to meet people face‐to‐face you've spoken with or worked with remotely,” said Sou Chon Young, a new employee and revenue cycle expert.

According to employees, the firm’s culture, referred to as the “Hayes Way,” is all about collaboration. The theme of the Summit was “Building Strong Teams.” Hayes employees communicate electronically with each other most of the time. Each can access the institutional knowledge of the entire firm with an email.

Hayes is ranked the Top Professional Services Firm by KLAS.* Could it be that employee satisfaction leads to excellent client service?

* Source: www.KLASresearch.com. 2010 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services.