Last week, the two leading EHR companies make news in EHR selection and implementation.
Tennessee’s top-ranked health system made the decision to replace its hospital and ambulatory EHR systems with an enterprisewide Cerner EHR technology.
Maury Regional Health and Cerner Corporation announced the 255-bed center located between Nashville and Huntsville would replace its inpatient EHR technology from MEDITECH and ambulatory EHR technology from NextGen Healthcare with a single Cerner health IT solution.
“Cerner will provide our organization with enhanced capabilities that will be beneficial for providers and patients,” Maury Regional Health CEO Alan Watson said in a public statement. “We are excited to unveil Cerner’s integrated health IT platform that will support our care teams across the continuum and unleash the potential of sophisticated functionality.”
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The health system will implement the enterprise Cerner EHR and revenue cycle management technology at its three hospitals and nearly 30 ambulatory facilities. As part of the decision, Cerner will provide remote hosting of Maury Regional’s EHR and clinical data from its Kansas City data center.
“Maury Regional is in a highly competitive and consolidating health care market, and we are proud to provide a robust platform that will support the organization as its leadership works toward continued accomplishments, independence and market strength,” said Cerner President Zane Burke. “Together, we’ll establish more connected health system that places the person at the center of the care journey.”
READY, SET, EPIC GO-LIVE
To the north, MidMichigan Health, University of Michigan Health System affiliate, is in the final week of its preparations for its Epic implementation schedule for April 1.
“We are really excited to launch our new EMR. We have had a team of more than 160 MidMichigan and Epic staff that have worked around the clock on the implementation and installation of this system for our patients. When we go live on April 1, we’ll have more than 750 staff designated as super users who will offer support to those using the new system,” said CIO Dan Waltz in an official announcement.
“Our previous system showed us that we had a real opportunity to transform the way patient care is delivered,” he continued. “We’ve reviewed and incorporated best practices into the design of the system and have no doubt this EMR will give our patients all that they deserve and more.”
The Epic EHR technology will become the single health IT platform at the health system’s medical centers in Alma, Clair, Gladwin, Midland, and Mt. Pleasant. Additionally, MidMichigan-owned facilities will use the same platform for registration, scheduling, and billing.
Chief among the benefits of the Epic EHR is a single patient record, said CMIO Pankaj Jandwani, MD.
“Anywhere the patient goes within our system, a MidMichigan provider will have access to their full medical record. And, when patients travel outside of our system to others with Epic software, such as our partners at University of Michigan, the medical record systems will talk to one another, making the exchange of information much easier and safer for the patient.”
MidMichigan will host its IT infrastructure locally and rely on the expertise available through the healthcare division of the University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine, which is already live on its Epic EHR.
The Saturday Epic go-live represents the first phase of the project. The second phase will include Epic implementations at MidMichigan Medical Center–Alpena in fall 2017 and MidMichigan Home Care in spring 2018.
“When you journey toward a change with a magnitude of this size, bumps and frustrations can be expected from time to time. Our teams are prepared to support one another through the change in workflows. What’s more, we reached out to our patients on how they can prepare for the new system by activating their MyMidMichigan account, which they use to communicate electronically with their providers, view their medical records and manage appointments and prescriptions,” Waltz concluded.
Epic Systems should likewise be bolstered reports that its $624-million contract with the Department of Veterans Administration is back on, according to Wisconsin State Journal. The Veterans Health Administration had called for a halt of the project last April and opted instead to pursue an internal solution.
Date:March 27, 2017