Selected work and results

Varyn Consulting designs and leads implementation processes that help organizations move complex healthcare initiatives from challenge definition through real-world testing and adoption.

Varyn brings the structure, systems thinking, improvement methods, and cross-functional translation. Participating leaders, subject-matter experts, frontline teams, community partners, and affected populations contribute the expertise needed to design workable solutions and carry changes into practice.

The results highlighted here reflect that shared effort.

Selected consulting results

$360,000 and 29%

Annual revenue increase and reduction in enrollment denials achieved through participating health-center improvement projects.

4,550 patient missed opportunitiesestimated

Estimated reach of redesigned previsit-planning workflows intended to reduce missed preventive screenings, vaccinations, and care gaps across two FQHCs.

-30% → +3%

Increase in monthly Ryan White case-management billing performance as a percentage of target by the final month of the initiative.

Results reflect specific participating organizations and projects. Outcomes should not be interpreted as guaranteed results for every engagement.

Selected consulting engagements

Turning Lean learning into measurable operational improvement

One participating Community Health Centers Outcomes

$360,000 increase in annual revenue.
29% reduction in enrollment denials.
Increased employee satisfaction and reduced frontline workload.
Learning spread to five additional health-center focus areas and network partners.

Challenge

Community health centers needed to strengthen patient outreach and enrollment services while reducing administrative burden, enrollment denials, and pressure on frontline teams.

Varyn's role

Designed and led an annual Lean learning collaborative, providing the structure, training, facilitation, and implementation coaching needed for approximately 75–100 health-center participants to understand problems, design solutions, and test changes in their own settings.

Shared implementation

Participating health-center leaders, subject-matter experts, and frontline teams selected their improvement priorities, designed the operational details, tested changes, reviewed results, and carried successful changes into practice.

Result

Across participating improvement projects, reported outcomes included increased revenue, fewer enrollment denials, improved employee experience, reduced frontline workload, and the spread of learning to additional health-center focus areas and network partners.

Organizations and settings

Community health centers participating in a national multi-site learning collaborative.

Closing missed care opportunities through redesigned previsit planning

Selected result

Redesigned previsit-planning workflows were estimated to reduce missed care opportunities across approximately 4,550 patient visits combined—approximately 3,250 at FQHC 1 and 1,300 at FQHC 2.(estimated)

Challenge

Two FQHCs participating in ACO and value-based-care arrangements were missing opportunities to address preventive screenings, vaccinations, and other care gaps during patient visits, and were scheduling duplicative and unnecessary appointments.

Varyn's role

Designed and led the improvement process, guiding cross-functional clinic teams through current-state workflow analysis, root-cause identification, future-state design, and implementation planning.

Shared implementation

Clinical and operational subject-matter experts shaped the redesigned workflows based on their knowledge of patient care, clinic operations, technology, staffing, and value-based-care requirements. Participating teams tested and implemented the changes.

Result

The redesigned workflows were estimated to reduce missed care opportunities across approximately 4,550 patient visits. The changes also supported improved clinic flow, staff satisfaction, care-team communication, and the organizations' total-cost-of-care and shared-savings goals.

Organizations and settings

Two FQHCs in Minneapolis.

Improving Ryan White case-management referrals and billing performance

Selected result

From 30% below target to 3% above target — monthly Ryan White case-management billing performance.

Challenge

Case-management referral workflows and team incentive structures were contributing to incomplete referrals, cross-department communication barriers, and billing performance below target.

Varyn's role

Designed and led the improvement process, helping the cross-functional team understand workflow breakdowns, identify root causes, redesign referral operations and incentive structures, and test changes in practice.

Shared implementation

A Louisiana FQHC's leaders, case-management subject-matter experts, and operational teams developed the detailed changes, implemented the redesigned process, reviewed performance, and refined the approach.

Result

By the final month of the initiative, monthly billing performance moved from 30% below target to 3% above target. The work also strengthened cross-department communication, staff engagement, and referral follow-through.

Organizations and settings

A Louisiana FQHC Ryan White case-management operations.

Connecting care settings through secure, usable information exchange

Selected result

ADT alert system implemented in a rural Minnesota county serving 35,000 covered lives.

Challenge

Hospitals, nursing facilities, public-health agencies, and clinics needed a secure way to share timely information and strengthen care coordination across settings.

Varyn's role

Designed and led the improvement process using Lean methods and worked with Health IT vendors and community partners to align workflows, technology, information-sharing requirements, and implementation needs.

Shared implementation

Healthcare organizations, public-health teams, technology vendors, and operational subject-matter experts contributed the technical and care-delivery expertise needed to configure, integrate, and operationalize the solution.

Result

The participating organizations deployed and integrated an ADT alert system serving 35,000 covered lives.

Organizations and settings

A rural Minnesota county spanning hospitals, nursing facilities, public health, clinics, community partners, and Health IT vendors.

Designing reusable telehealth infrastructure for underserved communities

Challenge

Rural and underserved communities needed workable ways to integrate telehealth into mobile care for people experiencing infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

Varyn's role

Designed and led the Human-Centered Design process, helping participating organizations understand patient and care-team experiences, identify implementation barriers, and develop reusable workflows and infrastructure.

Shared implementation

NACHC, participating FQHCs, community-based organizations, county public health, clinical subject-matter experts, and the people delivering and experiencing care contributed the expertise needed to shape the solution.

Result

The teams designed reusable infrastructure and workflows for integrating telehealth into mobile clinics serving rural and underserved populations.

Organizations and settings

NACHC, FQHCs, community-based organizations, county public health, and rural and underserved communities.

Earlier federal implementation leadership

Federal experience — aS an entrepreneur-in-residence

Mindy's approach builds on her experience designing and leading large federal improvement and implementation efforts. These were multi-year, team-based initiatives involving federal leaders, program teams, contractors, technology vendors, healthcare providers, patients, and other subject-matter experts.

Mindy designed and led the initiating improvement processes. Federal leaders, subject-matter experts, contractors, and operational teams developed the detailed solutions and carried implementation forward. The outcomes reflect that collective work.

Redesigning federal quality-measure development

Mindy's role

As an HHS Entrepreneur-in-Residence for CMS and ONC, Mindy designed and served as lead facilitator for nine federal Kaizen events at CMS, each involving approximately 40–150 participants. She structured the improvement approach and guided federal leaders, program teams, contractors, EHR vendors, healthcare providers, and patients through shared analysis, solution design, decision-making, and implementation planning.

Shared implementation

CMS program leaders, subject-matter experts, contractors, and implementation teams carried the work forward over several years.

Collective result

The work helped reduce quality-measure development cycles from five years to two and lower defect rates from nearly 100% to under 5%. It also contributed to a broader transformation in how the reporting programs operated.

Supporting policy and operational implementation of the Quality Payment Program

Mindy's role

Mindy worked as part of the broader federal and contractor team supporting the policy and operational implementation of the Quality Payment Program. She used Lean and Human-Centered Design to help teams work across policy development and implementation simultaneously, surface operational risks, and translate requirements into workable processes.

Shared implementation

Federal program leaders, policy teams, operational teams, contractors, technology partners, and subject-matter experts developed and implemented the program over multiple years.

Collective result

During the program's first year, annual appeals decreased from approximately 40,000 to 2,500, and physician data was delivered two months ahead of deadline.

These are program-level outcomes achieved through the work of large federal and contractor teams. They are included to demonstrate the scale and complexity of the implementation environments Mindy has helped lead.

Additional consulting work

CHW workforce technology and data strategy, including infrastructure, interoperability, digital tools, documentation, billing, and reimbursement considerations.
Quality Payment Program reporting-interface product development.
Clinical-quality-measure and value-based-care education and advising.
Data governance, Lean training, and standard operating procedures.
Statewide interoperability maturity assessment across multiple care settings.
Medicaid ACO and whole-person-care workflow integration work not already represented by the featured case studies.

Publications and features

Adapted Kaizen: Multi-Organizational Complex Process Redesign

American Journal of Medical Quality · Contributing author

Documents the adapted Kaizen approach used to redesign clinical-guideline development across federal agencies, EHR vendors, healthcare providers, and clinical experts.

Read the publication →

How an Entrepreneur-in-Residence Changed the Culture at CMS

Health IT Answers · Featured implementation story

Describes the culture and operational transformation at CMS during Quality Payment Program implementation, including the use of Human-Centered Design and Lean methods and the broader team's results.

Read the feature →

Computable Clinical Guidelines: Standards and Implementation

Clinical and Public Health Guidelines, Guidelines International Network · Contributing author

Covers the international Health IT standard for computable guidelines and the implementation work that followed the multi-organizational Kaizen process.

Read the publication →

Have a complex healthcare initiative that needs to work in practice?

If the challenge spans policy, technology, data, operations, teams, or organizational boundaries, Varyn can help connect the pieces and build a practical path from intent through implementation.

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