How Cozad Community Health System Optimized Its EHR for Lasting Success

For rural healthcare providers, efficiency isn’t a buzzword — it’s a requirement. Even small workflow improvements can have a meaningful impact on day-to-day operations, both improving provider satisfaction and maximizing resource efficiency.  

In this environment, partners that help streamline operations play a pivotal role in sustaining rural healthcare delivery. 

For Cozad Community Health System (CCHS), located on the Great Plains of central Nebraska, resources and staffing are consistently tight. Teams serve patients across a broad rural region and must continually balance demand with limited capacity. 

“We’ve had to think outside the box to enhance productivity,” says Erin Chytka, Chief Ancillary Officer at CCHS. “In this effort, TruBridge has been by our side providing tailored solutions that work for us so we can continue to provide lifesaving care.” 

CCHS is part of a vibrant, connected community. Their services — including emergency and inpatient hospital care, outpatient clinics, assisted living, home health, and hospice — create a wide operational footprint. 

As part of her role, Chytka oversees IT and has been a strong advocate for improving CCHS’s electronic health record (EHR) workflows. One advancement that has made a significant difference in daily operations is Application Managed Services (AMS).  

With AMS, TruBridge provides IT support. “We found that we couldn’t implement changes as quickly as we wanted due to our limited staffing,” Chytka says. “AMS helped us bridge this gap by taking over system maintenance, change management, and user support.”

AMS gives CCHS 24/7 access to experts who understand best practices across the platform. The AMS team can step in when internal staff are unavailable and lead issue resolution, ensuring continuity of operations.  

This model also reduces the burden of finding, training, and retaining local specialists — a persistent challenge in rural settings. By easing that workload, AMS allows IT leadership to focus on growth, strategy, and operational performance.  

For CCHS, EHR efficiency isn’t limited to IT workflows. Reducing the burden of system maintenance gives leaders more room to focus on how technology supports the people delivering care. That same focus on practical, day-to-day productivity shaped the next step for CCHS: improving clinical workflows.

Ambient listening is another efficiency booster that CCHS recently adopted. While providers engage with patients, the embedded AI tool generates a draft visit note that syncs directly to the chart, reducing manual documentation. 

“Providers can interact with patients without sitting behind a computer screen and focus more on the conversation,” Chytka says. “After the visit, they spend less time documenting the encounter. The time saved means providers can see more patients.”  

CCHS leadership is also closely following the development of other AI-enabled tools. At the 2026 National Client Conference, presentations highlighted how emerging capabilities may further support rural and critical access hospitals. “I loved hearing about how AI is being tailored to help with nursing workflows and other healthcare processes,” Chytka says. 

CCHS onboarded with TruBridge in 2018, though the early experience was challenging. So, leadership explored ways they could use the system more. “When we started maximizing the benefits of our TruBridge relationship, we became more efficient, which made all the difference,” Chytka says.  

That shift marked a turning point in CCHS’s EHR strategy toward active optimization of the tools they already had in place. Because of their increased engagement, TruBridge invited CCHS to join their Client Advisory Council. Members work together to identify areas to improve current products and emerging needs.  

Participation in the council is valuable for both partners. Insights from the council inform ongoing enhancements and future solution development for TruBridge. It helps CCHS better leverage the system while also providing the opportunity to collaborate with peer organizations facing similar challenges.  

For Chytka, the work is personal and professional. She lives in the community, is raising her family there, and sees EHR improvement as one way to make care better and accessible close to home.  

“The partnership is a success,” Chytka says. “The evolving collaboration and interest in future applications has positioned us to better serve our patients and community, even with our ongoing resource constraints.”