Project Spotlight: The Impact of a Specialist Epic Cogito Trainer on a Complex Epic Implementation

In early 2025, the County of Santa Clara Valley Health System was moving forward with its acquisition of Regional Medical Center (RMC), a major strategic expansion that required integrating the facility into the County’s existing Epic environment. To execute this critical training phase, Santa Clara Valley Health System turned to its pool of pre-qualified technology partners. They needed to partner with an EHR consulting firm that could deliver a specialist consultant capable of building and delivering a curriculum for Epic’s complex Cogito analytics suite.

The project had a mountain of upfront work and an aggressive timeline. Before a single class could be taught, the Epic consultant would need to perform a full needs assessment, design a custom training solution, and document the entire curriculum. This work, which would normally take place over a longer preparation period, had to be completed in a highly condensed timeframe.

The search for the right person was on. Certified Epic Cogito trainers are already a rare find. The County needed one who was also a skilled clinical educator and a Registered Nurse, a combination that makes the available talent pool shrink dramatically.

This is where our approach made the difference. We knew the distinction between someone who can pass a certification exam and someone who can command a classroom during a high-stakes hospital merger. Our goal wasn’t just to check a certification box; we sought an Epic implementation consultant with a proven track record and a history of real-world impact.

The expertise HealthTECH provided brought a unique combination of skills to the role. She was a Registered Nurse with a Master’s in Nursing Education, which grounded her training in a deep understanding of clinical workflows. Her resume spoke for itself, with a history of helping a prior hospital earn millions through the Meaningful Use program and implementing an initiative that led to a 99% decrease in medication errors. This was the problem-solver the project needed.

Collaboration was essential. Our EHR consultant worked directly with the County’s clinical leadership, Epic analysts, IT staff, and department heads to ensure the training she designed was not only technically accurate but deeply relevant to their day-to-day work.

The success of this partnership was made possible by the client’s own culture. As our consultant noted:

By providing a specialist who executed a clear and strategic plan, HealthTECH ensured the vital Epic Cogito training component of the integration was a success. The outcomes speak for themselves:

• A Flawless Epic Go-Live: The consultant successfully onboarded all 200 new hospital staff on schedule, resulting in zero training delays and zero post-go-live escalations related to the reporting tools.
• An Asset That Keeps on Giving: She transformed a lengthy two-hour training session into a concise, one-hour on-demand video. This became a go-to resource for the health system, saving significant staff time while ensuring knowledge retention for future onboarding.
• A Newfound Confidence: The training was so effective that it demonstrably improved user confidence with the analytics dashboards. It was so well-received that multiple departments requested follow-up “deep-dive” sessions, confirming the value and clarity of her approach.
• Support Beyond the Classroom: The engagement included ongoing support for end-user issues and a comprehensive knowledge transfer, ensuring the County’s internal team was fully equipped to carry the work forward long after the contract ended.

This project highlights our commitment: we provide deeply vetted EHR specialists who don’t just fill a role, but who mitigate project risk and deliver measurable results during our clients’ most vital technology transitions.