Healthcare providers often don't have the money, time or experience to properly install and manage new IT systems.
That's where The Breakaway Group comes in.

"Their mission in life is patient care – not training, not IT," says Charles Fred, CEO of the Denver-based company. "What we've been able to do is really change the game, giving time back (to providers) to spend with their patients."
At a time when the economy is forcing hospitals and physician groups of all sizes to pare budgets and consider trimming staff, companies like The Breakaway Group are selling themselves as an alternative to IT staffs and implementation costs. For a subscription-based fee, the company installs the technology, trains staff, attends the go-live and is on hand for three years to handle changes or updates and train new personnel.
Fred points out that the company doesn't "train the trainers," but sets up simulations based on job roles. By working directly with the employees involved, he says, the program is designed to reduce training time by 90 percent and increase employee knowledge by 85 percent.

The Valley Baptist Health System in south Texas selected The Breakaway Group last August to implement the Information Management for Physician and Patient Access with Clinical Transformation (IMPACTT) initiative, which includes GE Healthcare's Centricity Enterprise electronic medical record system, Streamline Health's document imaging, management and workflow software, Picis' perioperative information management software and ImageCast's radiology information system. The company will use online simulators and more than 200 "change agents" to get Valley Baptist's new system up and running and train more than 3,500 users spread over two large hospitals.

"We're extremely passionate and committed to providing the highest quality patient care," said Thomas Gonzalez, senior vice president and chief quality officer for Valley Baptist. "Implementing EMR technology is a major undertaking, and The Breakaway Group will enable more than 3,000 users at Valley Baptist to adopt the technology efficiently, quickly and thoroughly."

In a growing field, among The Breakaway Group's competitors is CTG HealthCare Solutions of Cincinnati, which signed a $1.7 million contract last October to implement Epic Systems software at a major children's hospital with a large pediatric research program. This year, the company will be overseeing an Epic software installation at a large faith-based integrated delivery system, a project valued at roughly $3.3 million.

James R. Boldt, chairman and CEO of parent company CTG, said the healthcare arm represents 25 percent of the company's total revenue and is its fastest-growing subsidiary.

"I think we've kind of overdosed healthcare providers with applications," says Breakaway's Fred. "Especially the CIOs. It's crazy."