In our earlier posts, we covered the urgency of the CMS TEAM mandate and the financial and operational risks of inaction. You know why you need a strong strategy—now the question is how to build it.
Many hospitals turn to their EHR or try to manage these complex episodes manually. While EHRs handle clinical documentation and billing, they just aren’t equipped to deliver the consistent, patient-facing operations needed for real success under TEAM.
That’s where CipherHealth comes in. We have a proven track record for optimizing outcomes, standardizing workflows and we’re here to help your hospital succeed under the CMS TEAM mandate.
Why EHR Functionality Falls Short
The TEAM model requires hospitals to actively manage care across the full episode—before, during, and after hospitalization.
While EHRs serve as a central record, they aren’t designed to drive patient engagement, monitor recovery in real time, or standardize workflows across every touchpoint.
Here’s why:
- Limited out-of-hospital reach: TEAM accountability extends far beyond discharge. EHRs don’t actively support the ongoing engagement, monitoring and coordination patients need after they leave your facility.
- Inconsistent patient communication: TEAM demands consistent, proactive communication from pre-admission through recovery. EHRs aren’t designed for automated, personalized conversations at scale, leaving patients to navigate confusing gaps in information.
- No early warning system: Storing data isn’t enough. Identifying risk before readmissions happen requires real-time outreach and symptom monitoring, something EHRs aren’t equipped to handle on their own.
- Lack of standardized workflows: Every patient needs the same high-quality experience. Without automation, keeping workflows consistent across providers, shifts and locations is nearly impossible.
- Fragmented episode performance data: EHRs hold clinical data, but bringing together cost, experience and recovery data for TEAM performance analysis often means tedious manual work and incomplete views.
Why Manual Processes Make Things Worse—And More Expensive
Relying on manual processes to manage TEAM episodes quickly exposes the cracks. As patient volumes rise and care grows more complex, it’s not sustainable to manage outreach with phone calls, spreadsheets, and relying on staff’s memory.
Even the most dedicated teams struggle to keep up and small gaps in follow-up can lead to missed interventions and costly readmissions. Valuable clinical staff spend hours on repetitive tasks, which is time that should be focused on patient care.
And without automated data capture, it’s nearly impossible to track performance, optimize workflows or prove financial ROI under TEAM.
How CipherHealth Supports CMS TEAM Success
CipherHealth closes these gaps, giving hospitals a reliable, scalable way to deliver TEAM-level consistency across every patient episode:
- Full episode management: Oversee every step of the TEAM journey, from pre-admission to post-discharge,while standardizing care, communication, and coordination.
- Automated, personalized engagement: Deliver timely education, reminders, instructions, and symptom checks in each patient’s preferred language and channel (SMS, web, voice), creating a personal experience that scales.
- Proactive risk identification: Flag patients showing early signs of risk, enabling care teams to intervene before issues escalate into costly readmissions.
- Standardized workflows at scale: Ensure every patient receives the right message at the right time, with automation driving consistency across teams, departments, and locations.
- Real-time operational data: Gain immediate visibility into engagement, adherence, and outcomes across TEAM episodes, with actionable insights for continuous improvement.
- Built to work with your EHR: Exchange data effortlessly to create a complete, connected view of each patient’s journey.
The Time to Prepare is Now
The CMS TEAM model is a new operating reality. Relying on EHRs and manual workarounds won’t cut it. CipherHealth’s full suite of tools gives you a proven system to meet TEAM demands with consistency, efficiency and confidence.
Ready to see how CipherHealth can make your hospital a leader in the CMS TEAM mandate? Click here to schedule a demo.
