Creating synergy and quality care within healthcare organizations
Synergistic Strategies is a healthcare consulting firm that provides hands-on guidance for organizations in transformation, implementation, and strategy.
Creating synergy and quality care within healthcare organizations
Synergistic Strategies is a healthcare consulting firm that provides hands-on guidance for organizations in transformation, implementation, and strategy.
Synergistic Strategies is built upon an understanding of how all roles within a practice work together to create a successful health system for patients and families. Our experience is rooted in the practice setting, across primary care and clinical specialties. By working with the various ranks of healthcare leadership, we have gained a full understanding of how each role, each person, and each provider contributes to practice initiatives and quality patient care. Working together and finding synergy among all administrative and clinical roles is key to forward progress and team-based care.
About Synergistic Strategies
Samantha Sawdon, PCMH CCE
Sam is an experienced professional with the ability to manage operations, processes and people to implement change. She has expertise in managing enterprise-wide health information technology projects including:
- Coordination of stakeholders and vendors, strategic planning, project planning and management
- Administrative and clinical workflow assessments, design, implementation and optimization
- Client-focused projects such as the implementation of quality programs, team based care and care management support
- Strong leadership skills to focus teams on project timelines and deliverables, leading through accountability
Sam is the owner and principal consultant at Synergistic Strategies LLC. Prior to starting her own company, she worked as a Managing Consultant for the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and was a Practice Manager for major hospitals in the Boston area. She managed the Senior Health Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Multi-Specialty practice at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and was a Practice Coordinator for the Cardiology and Vascular Surgery Departments at Boston Medical Center. Sam holds a degree from University of New Hampshire and has been a PCMH CCE for 10 years.
In her spare time she runs a small horse farm where she keeps her horses, Watson and Donut, and a couple of their friends. Working outdoors with gardening, yard work and farm work brings great joy to her non-work life.
Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) & Transformation Services
Whether a practice wants to implement the PCMH model of care on their own or by requirement of a parent organization, looking at the process of transformation from end-to-end can often be overwhelming, especially while also maintaining day-to-day operations. Synergistic Strategies can assist practices with understanding requirements, setting timelines to complete a sustainable transformation, and creating processes that incorporate all levels of staff.
View Our Clients
- Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center, Roslindale, MA: NCQA PCMH and clinical workflow assessment and recommendations for the health center nursing team and roles
- Mattapan Community Health Center, Mattapan, MA: PCMH and Distinction in Behavioral Health
- Boston Medical Center, Departments of Pediatrics, Family Medicine, and General Internal Medicine, Boston, MA: NCQA PCMH and Distinction in Behavioral Health
- Valley Health Partners PHO, Western, MA: NCQA PCMH and Distinction in Behavioral Health
- Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), New York, NY: NCQA PCMH and Distinction in Behavioral Health Coach
Project Management Services
An outside perspective and extra set of hands can often be key in pushing initiatives forward. A successful implementation takes planning, understanding of goals and priorities, and vendor management. Synergistic Strategies can assist clients with managing the details of projects through set timelines, project plans, and managing communications and follow ups.
View Our Clients
- Boston Children’s Hosptial ACO and FamilyAid Boston (FAB), Boston, MA: Project management of tasks, Flexible Services data collection, and assist with identifying and implementing the resources needed to complete the technical build in Clarity data management system to support ongoing collection of required information and reporting to BCH ACO for MassHealth
- Mattapan Community Health Center, Mattapan, MA: HRSA Operational Site Visit preparation and documentation management, FTCA annual application documentation, new employee orientation process and materials, policy library index review and update
- Care for the Homeless, New York, NY: Implementation of OpenNotes
- VIP Community Services, New York, NY: Implementation of OpenNotes
- Mosaic Health, Rochester, NY: Implementation of OpenNotes
- Collaborative for Homeless Healthcare (CHH), New York, NY: Carequality and CommonWell implementation, SMS texting implementation for 18 organizations that provide care to homeless patients in NYC
Grant & RFP Services
Organizations face many competing priorities, often needing assistance in submitting for state, federal or private funding opportunities in a short timeline. Organizing response materials, team input, complying with grant response requirements, and deciding how to move forward can take up valuable staff and leadership time and energy. Synergistic Strategies assists organizations with applying for grant funding, responding to Request for Proposals (RFP) or creating an RFP for industry response.
View Our Clients
- Department of Homeless Services, New York, NY: Requirements development and RFP creation for data warehouse
- Mattapan Community Health Center, Mattapan, MA: Grant Writing and Documentation: HRSA 330 Funding, HRSA Ending the HIV Epidemic – Primary Care HIV Prevention Grant, Employee Retention Tax Credit, MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) Capital Improvement Grant. Grant Project Management: Department of Public Health Innovative Diabetes and CVD Prevention and Management Grant (1817)
- Mental Health Association (MHA) of Westchester, Tarrytown, NY: New York State Department of Health Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program IV
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hosptial, Lebanon, NH: Through funding from Rural Behavioral Health Workforce Coordinating Centers – Northern Border Region project, catalogued state regulations for Peer Support Specialist certifications for mental health and rapid mobile crisis peers and presented research on SUD Certified Recovery Support Worker certification requirements in neighboring states
Speaking Engagements & Published Articles
- NCQA Quality Innovation Series, QIS Session 16: Using Health IT to Enhance Communication Between Patients and Providers
- Social Determinants in the Medical Home, NCQA Quarterly PCMH CCE Webinar, May 2020
- Electronic Health Records – Understanding the Payment Landscape – Module 1, Online CME created for the Massachusetts Medical Society, November 2018
- Understand the Core Constructs of PCMH to Evaluate Readiness for Transformation Across the Care Continuum, Presented at the 4th Annual PCMH and Practice Transformation Summit & PCMH and Behavioral Health Integration Congress, Orlando, FL, May 2018
- Creating and Sustaining Team Based Care in a Patient-Centered Practice, New England MGMA Conference, Cape Neddick, ME, May 2018
- Taking Those Critical First Steps-Self-Assessment and Gap Analysis, Presented at NCQA PCMH Congress, Orlando, FL, November 2017
- Team Based Care – It Takes a Village to Transform to a Medical Home, NCQA Quarterly CCE Webinar, June 2016
- Destination Transformation! Taking Those Critical First Steps – Self-Assessment and Gap Analysis, NCQA Quarterly CCE Webinar, November 2015
- “EHR Conversion: Why the Change? Five pain points to consider when embarking upon an EHR transition,” Executive Insight, October 2015
- “EHR Vendor Conversion: The Critical Review Process,” HITECH Answers, September 2015
- “Best Practices for Provider & Community EHRs” Advance HIT, October 2014
- “55 Recommendations for successfully handling software conversions,” Health Management Technology, August 2014
- Stage 2 Meaningful Use Overview, Winchester Highland Management speaking engagement, March 2014
- Putting the pieces together: EHR Incentive Programs, Meaningful Use, and Health Information Exchange, Health Innovators speaking engagement, January 2014
Contact Us
Synergistic Strategies LLC
539 Wattaquadock Hill Rd.
Bolton, MA 01740
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or just want to talk about a potential project. You can also fill out the contact form to tell us a little bit about yourself and your ideas. Sam will get back to you as soon as possible to talk about how she can assist you with your organization’s initiatives.
Fill out my online form.