Kansas-based Hiawatha Community Hospital will go live with an athenahealth EHR replacement on September 11.
Hiawatha Community Hospital will go live with a cloud-based athenahealth EHR replacement on September 11 after about a year of preparation.
The athenahealth EHR will take the place of the hospital’s former Paragon EHR system, according to Hiawatha World Online.
The hospital has been working with athenahealth to prepare for go-live since September 2017. Hiawatha Community Hospital staff has worked with athenahealth to customize the new system to meet the specific needs of the area’s patients and providers.
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Hiawatha will implement the EHR system at the hospital and all network clinics and outpatient services centers. The hospital has been using its Paragon EHR system for almost six years.
The Hiawatha Hospital Association Board of Trustees unanimously voted to move from Paragon to athenahealth in part due to athenahealth’s focus on meeting the needs of small to medium-sized hospitals and physician practices.
“The research and consideration process that led to the decision to choose athenahealth was not easy,” Hiawatha Community Hospital CEO Jeff Shelton told Hiawatha World Online. “The staff and providers were insistent that any replacement of the current EHR system must not only improve clinical operations, but also be utilized within the clinic setting.”
The board first began looking for an EHR replacement after Allscripts bought Paragon as part of its acquisition of McKesson.
“The athenahealth system is expected to simplify the patient admissions process, streamline patient encounters, and improve billing processes,” said Hiawatha Community Hospital chairman Andy Delaney.
Patients at the community hospital will also have secure access to an online patient portal. Patients can use the portal to view their personal health data, discharge summaries, medication prescriptions, and lab test results.
Hiawatha patients will need to verify the accuracy of their contact and insurance information as the hospital completes the transition.
“This transition will require some work on the part of our patients,” said Shelton.
Brooklyn Hospital Center Goes Live with Epic EHR Implementation
Elsewhere in EHR implementation news, the Brooklyn Hospital Center recently went live with a new Epic EHR implementation across its ambulatory care sites in an effort to improve provider communication and enable better-informed clinical decision-making for providers.
The single, integrated Epic EHR replaces several disparate EHR systems formerly in place across TBHC ambulatory care facilities.
“Epic makes it easier for our providers to communicate and access the information they need to care for our patients,” said TBHC President and CEO Gary Terrinoni. “There were many systems in place at our ambulatory care sites, and Epic allows us to consolidate onto a single, shared platform for patient care.”
TBHC currently delivers care to area patients through a network of ambulatory care sites. The Epic EHR system will help to improve clinical efficiency for providers by streamlining scheduling, billing, and population health initiatives.
Meanwhile, patients will have access to Epic’s patient portal MyChart. Patients can use the portal to communicate with providers, schedule appointments, and pay bills online.
Switching to Epic will also improve health data exchange for TBHC providers for better-informed clinical decision-making and care delivery. Providers at the hospital will be able to send and receive complete patient health data for improved care coordination with clinicians across care facilities and networks.
Effective health data exchange can help to reduce duplicative testing, save hospitals money, and improve patient health outcomes.
Epic recently made an effort to improve interoperability between Epic users and users of health IT systems from different vendors by hosting an Un-Users Group Meeting to help users of non-Epic vendor technologies learn how to effectively exchange data with Epic users.
Date: September 10, 2018
Source: EHR Intelligence