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Communities Of Excellence

Communities of Excellence:   Knowledge Sharing Teams

1. Knowledge sharing teams
2. Communities of Excellence (COE) defined
3. Example:   Ascension Health Information Services
4. Example:   The Regence Group
5. Example:   Department of Homeland Security
6. Conclusion

Over the past decade, organizations have begun to realize that one of their most valuable assets is the knowledge contained within the organization.   This has contributed toward the progression of creating work groups and/or work teams to acquire and share knowledge with each other.   Knowledge management (KM) is comprised of a broad range of practices used by organizations to identify, create, represent and distribute knowledge (Chakravarti, 2008).   Many companies today are focusing significant efforts and resources on developing their KM systems by identifying Centers of Excellence or Communities of Excellence (COEs) within their organizations.   A COE is a group of individuals with similar expertise, working toward a common goal.   Members of a COE are usually experts within their field and are responsible for developing that discipline for the company’s entire enterprise.  

One of the most common tasks a COE is asked to perform, is to standardize the company’s policies and procedures.   It is likely that the different divisions within an organization will use the same policies and procedures, so it makes sense to develop them to fit all areas of the business.   This helps makes business practices consistent throughout the organization.   Ascension Health Information Services (AHIS) provides Information Technology support for over 70 Catholic hospitals within the Ascension Health Network.   As part of their KM initiative, they have created a COE to support the documentation of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) standard policies and procedures, which is a requirement for hospital accreditation (Lamb, 2008).   Without the COE, all 70 hospitals would have developed...